All selected EOCs have the function of coordinating and
commanding the emergencies response activities to public health
threats or planned events in their countries or regions, and
abroad, which include information management, personnel deployment
and resource allocation.
In addition to the basic EOC functions, public health EOCs play
an important role in closely monitoring the situation, and
providing a platform for the health professionals to analyze the
collected information and make risk assessment based on that.
Taking USCDC-EOC as an example, it is routinely managed by the
Division of Emergency Operations (DEO) in the CDC's Office of
Public Health Preparedness and Response.
Except for the staff working in the DEO, many staff and
responders working in EOC adjust their normal work schedule to
accommodate part-time engagement in the center during the
emergency.
Appropriate training is provided to the part-time staff to make
sure they are qualified for their assignments during emergency
response and are familiar with various guidance documents including
the National Response Framework, ICS, and CDC Emergency Operations
Center functions. The other three selected EOCs are staffed in the
similar way.
The first rule of staffing an EOC is that no person should be
assigned roles and responsibilities that are alien to them. To
achieve this, all personnel in an EOC should be assigned the tasks
similar to their normal working ones, accept their roles in an EOC,
undertake their tasks and fulfill the related trainings.
It is obviously that all the selected EOCs are managed by
department or unit responsible for emergency management and
appropriate trainings are provided to the EOC staff.So,yes more
than the seniority its the experience and knowledge that matters
which comes through effective training.