8 responses to findings and recommendations
F1
State, national, and international guidelines are not adequately addressed in the County’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan (see Appendix 1).
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees wholly with the finding. The Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is a planning and response tool, not a resource prioritization tool so no causal relationship can be asserted. As further described in the response to Recommendation R2, the County was prepared with a hazard-specific plan to address the pandemic: The Disease Outbreak Response Annex. While every incident reveals areas for improvement in emergency response and recovery, it is overly broad and inaccurate to assert that the County was underprepared. The County encountered many of the same logistical issues faced worldwide; howe...
F2
Orange County Emergency Operations Plan’s classification of a pandemic as being “Unlikely” has caused the OCHCA to be underprepared for the current pandemic.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees wholly with the finding. The Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is a planning and response tool, not a resource prioritization tool so no causal relationship can be asserted. As further described in the response to Recommendation R2, the County was prepared with a hazard-specific plan to address the pandemic: The Disease Outbreak Response Annex. While every incident reveals areas for improvement in emergency response and recovery, it is overly broad and inaccurate to assert that the County was underprepared. The County encountered many of the same logistical issues faced worldwide; howe...
F3
The OCHCA has not effectively used its resources to close the gaps in a) Pandemic Influenza Planning Program Work Plan and b) Public Health Emergency Preparedness Work Plan and c) Hospital Preparedness Work Plan.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees wholly with the finding. The work plans provided to the Grand Jury only listed the capabilities, objectives and activities and did not include their status (complete or in progress). As a result, the document indicated that the activities were "overdue" when in fact they were not. All of the capabilities and functions outlined in the CDC Local Agency Pandemic Planning Guidelines (Appendix 1 of Grand Jury Report) are acknowledged within the work plans. Of the twenty-two (22) functions noted with a "known gap in planning", nine were completed, eight were in an out-year, one was in prog...
F4
The OCHCA's budget was not allocated relative to the likelihood of pandemic planning and preparation.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees wholly with the finding. For all fiscal periods included in the report, OCHCA budgeted all available funds for health disaster planning and preparation. County budget allocations for pandemic planning and preparation are based on funding from federal, state and local allocations available for this purpose. OCHCA notes that the fiscal resource used by the Grand Jury for this report was not the County budget. County of Orange State of California Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) are not reflective of OCHCA budgeted allocations for County health disaster planning and prepara...
F5
The OCHCA has not established comprehensive community-based task forces that facilitate and support health care institutions in Orange County.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees wholly with the finding. Orange County's Healthier Together is a community-wide initiative that aligns public and private resources within the public health system to improve health for all communities in Orange County. This initiative, established in 2012, is led by the Health Improvement Partnership (HIP). The HIP is composed of representatives from 35 partner organizations including health care providers, health systems, hospitals, academic institutions, collaborative, community-based organizations and other government agencies. The HIP is responsible for conducting a Community He...
F7
The OCHCA has underestimated the media requirements necessary to effectively communicate during a pandemic.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees partially with the finding. The OCHCA Public Information Office coordinated the Agency's response to approximately 291 individual media inquiries in 2020 and 156 as of May 17, 2021 related to COVID-19 - which has included one-on-one interviews, written responses shared via email and telephone interviews. The Orange County Sheriff's Department's Emergency Operations Center's (EOC) lead Public Information Manager for the COVID-19 incident made the determination that County press conferences, with the exception of offsite events, would be held in a centrally-located room in the Hall of ...
F8
The OCHCA has not implemented or maintained appropriate community resources and back-up communication systems/channels to allow for an expedited transmission and receipt of information. This limits the ability to communicate and respond to local questions from the public and professional groups.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees wholly with the finding. The OCHCA and County Executive Office (CEO) have utilized the EOC as a distribution mechanism to share press releases and relevant collateral materials to the operational area throughout the duration of pandemic for a broader reach. Additionally, the OCHCA established an Incident Management Team (IMT) in partnership with the Orange County Fire Authority at the start of 2021, during which time the IMT PIO group has created and distributed messaging related to vaccinations and the Othena platform to a wide distribution list to ensure consistency and accuracy of...
F9
The OCHCA has not effectively addressed the pandemic related needs of the residents of Orange County with limited English language proficiency in accordance with the pandemic preparedness plan.
Response: Disagree Partially
Score: 0
Disagrees partially with the finding. In an effort to directly reach our Spanishspeaking communities, CEO hired a veteran journalist in January of 2021 to assist with same-day Spanish language translations, on-camera interviews in Spanish and to produce weekly COVID-19 updates in Spanish for social media. Additionally, work is underway within the CEO Communications office to develop a new full-time Language Access Coordinator position to ensure agency/department compliance with Orange County Board of Supervisors Language Access Policy, which was passed by the Board in December 2020. Please see...
