"A prepared community is one that develops, maintains, and uses a realistic preparedness plan that is integrated with routine practices and has the following components: Preplanned and coordinated rapid-response capability (1) Health risk assessment. Identify the hazards and vulnerabilities (e.g., community health assessment, populations at risk, high-hazard industries, physical structures of importance) that will form the basis of planning. (2) Legal climate. Identify and address issues concerning legal authority and liability barriers to effectively monitor, prevent, or respond to a public health emergency. (3) Roles and responsibilities. Clearly define, assign, and test responsibilities in all sectors, at all levels of government, and with all individuals, and ensure each group's integration. (4) Incident Command System (ICS). Develop, test, and improve decision making and response capability using an integrated ICS at all response levels. (5) Public engagement. Educate, engage, and mobilize the public to be full and active participants in public health emergency preparedness. (6) Epidemiology functions. Maintain and improve the systems to monitor, detect, and investigate potential hazards, particularly those that are environmental, radiological, toxic, or infectious. (7) Laboratory functions. Maintain and improve the systems to test for potential hazards, particularly those that are environmental, radiological, toxic, or infectious. (8) Countermeasures and mitigation strategies. Develop, test, and improve community mitigation strategies (e.g., isolation and quarantine, social distancing) and countermeasure distribution strategies when appropriate. (9) Mass health-care. Develop, test, and improve the capability to provide mass health-care services. (10) Public information and communication. Develop, practice, and improve the capability to rapidly provide accurate and credible information to the public in culturally appropriate ways. (11) Robust supply chain. Identify critical resources for public health emergency response and practice and improve the ability to deliver these resources throughout the supply chain. Expert and fully staffed workforce (1) Operations-ready workers and volunteers. Develop and maintain a public health and healthcare workforce that has the skills and capabilities to perform optimally in a public health emergency. (2) Leadership. Train, recruit, and develop public health leaders (e.g., to mobilize resources, engage the community, develop interagency relationships, and communicate with the public). Accountability and quality improvement (1) Testing operational capabilities. Practice, review, report on, and improve public health emergency preparedness by regularly using real public health events, supplemented with drills and exercises when appropriate. (2) Performance management. Implement a performance management and accountability system. (3) Financial tracking. Develop, test, and improve charge capture, accounting, and other financial systems to track resources and ensure adequate and timely reimbursement". (Nelson et al, American Journal of Public Health, 2007, p. S10; in Altevogt, Research Priorities in EP&R, Jan 2008, pp. 11-12)