Citation

Fallon LF, Schmalzried HD, Hasan N. J. Public Health Manag. Pract. 2011; 17(1): E1-6.

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio (Drs Fallon and Schmalzried); and University of Toledo, Department of Mathematics, Toledo, Ohio (Ms Hasan).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PHH.0b013e3181e31d22

PMID

21135649

Abstract

Of the 2790 local health departments (LHDs) in the United States, Internet homepages were located for 1986. We reviewed each homepage to document the presence of 9 elements deemed to be critical for effective communications during emergency or disaster situations. LHD Web site homepages had a mean of 4.1 (±1.4) elements. Among the findings, this review revealed that 4 of 5 (80.5%) of the LHDs included the agency phone number, half (49.4%) provided links to emergency information, and about 1 in 5 (19.6%) listed an agency e-mail address. Fewer than 1 in 20 (4.3%) of the LHD homepages reviewed allowed visitors to sign up for automatic alerts or notifications. We suggest that these results be used as a starting point in developing a standardized template containing the 9 homepage elements. Such a template complements National Incident Management System protocols and can provide a recognizable source of consistent and reliable information for people during a public health emergency or disaster.

Language: en