WebEOC use during Influenza response

With WebEOC having been in use for over 50 days and as many as 180 users online at anytime it is appropriate to provide an update and document some of the many tweaks and enhancements that have been made over the last month.

The most significant of these was the creation of Board 90. WebEOC Issues and Updates. This board has allowed, Ian, Jeremy and I to address over 200 user suggestions and bugs. Some of these have been as simple as creating new user positions whilst other have addressed additional functionality such as filters or alternative views being created within boards.

Since the start of the incident we have created over 50 additional user log-ons with a range of different levels of access.

These have included a lot of 'View Only' users from other government departments or agencies that will typically only have access to the National Sig Event board and the Influenza Summary Board.

The other group of additional users has tended to be local agencies that are working with DHBs on a day to day basis. This has included both Liaison Officers from local CDEM and a number of Primary Health Organisations. All of these users can be created so that they are in effect co-located within the DHB EOC environment even if not physically located. This 'virtual EOC' has significant benefits in enhancing joint planning and response.

In addition to the Jeremy, the Critchlow developer I normally work with we also had the ebenfit of Ian Downey, who is normally based in Critchlow's Melbourne office joining us for four weeks and he provided additional capacity around some fo the board building and enhancements that were put into place. Ian worked with us during the WebEOC trial in Ex Cruiickshank a couple of years ago and since being based in Asutralia has developed and supported WebEOC installations with a range of federal and state agencies so was able to bring some interesting ideas back with him.

Other major changes have included re-formatting the layout of the Event Log display's at all levels to move away from what some users referred to as the 'rolling toilet paper' display to a more streamlined look as well as the creation of several new boards to track school closures, antiviral stock levels and Community Based Assessment Centres.

Lots of other 'minor' enhancements have also been rolled out. Many of these requiring a bit more work than would initially appear. These incldue the ability to filter tasks by key sections and the development of a more powerful search fucntion for many of the boards.

We've also had the benefit of visits from Fred Wilson who provides WebEOC and Emergency Management consultancy to Auckland City Council and was able to feedback to us on user issues within Auckland as well as a four day visit from the Australian Attorney General's (AG's) Department. AG's were due to attend the WebEOC Users Workshop that had to be postponed last month but took the opportunity to view WebEOC and the National Health Coordination Centre in action.

As the National Health Coordination Centre continues to bed down into an operational response I will endeavour to provide some additional updates on some of the board fetaures that we have added.