Q&A
City agencies involved in preparing for public health emergencies
0:26:01
ยท
94 sec
Dr. Michelle Morse discusses the collaboration between various city agencies in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. She emphasizes the importance of inter-agency relationships and coordination.
- DOHMH works closely with agencies like NISM, Health and Hospitals, and DSS
- Multi-agency engagement is often necessary for effective emergency response
- DOHMH maintains close communication with the state health department
- Recent collaboration example: live bird market closures
Lynn Schulman
0:26:01
What city agencies typically involved in preparing for potential and future public health emergencies?
Dr. Michelle Morse
0:26:07
Well, that's a phenomenal question.
0:26:09
We we pride ourselves on working very closely with sister agencies across the city as well as other stakeholders who are not in city government.
0:26:19
We work very closely with NISM.
0:26:21
We also work very closely with health and hospitals.
0:26:24
We work very closely with DSS and many other agencies that would be involved in emergencies.
0:26:29
And the reason that it's important to have those relationships, of course, is that oftentimes a public health emergency cannot be responded to by a single agency.
0:26:38
It often requires the engagement of multiple different agencies with their own expertise and powers, And so we make it a point to have good relationships with our sister agencies because we know we would need to work together in the event of a public health emergency.
0:26:55
We did learn that both during COVID as well as during the MPOXX response.
0:27:00
And then the final thing that I'll say is in addition to us working closely with all of those agencies, the sister agencies, we always make sure that we're in close communication with the state health department.
0:27:12
I am thankful that I have a phenomenal relationship with commissioner doctor Jim McDonald who's a pediatrician because we also know that we have to rely on the state in some cases and partner with them either around data or actions or other types of responses to public health emergencies and we coordinated very closely together, for example, with the live bird market closure that just happened a couple of weeks ago.