ERHMS

Health Monitoring and Surveillance During Response Operations

Purpose

Response personnel need to bemonitored in orderto documentthe condition oftheir health, injury, and illnessstatus 

duringemergencyoperationsinresponse todisasters andemergentevents.

Monitoringreferstotheongoing andsystematic collection, analysis, interpretation, anddisseminationofdata relatedto 

anindividualincidentresponder.

Surveillance refers to the ongoing and systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of illness and 

injury data related to an event’s emergency responder population as a whole.

Health (Injury and Illness) Monitoring

• Allows for prompt recognition of risks that may be 

amenable to intervention.

• Gathers information that can be used for 

understanding the health effects of ongoing or 

newexposuresoccurring duringemergentevents.

• Provides valuable information:

o Forsetting upmedicalsurveillance post-deployment.

o For follow-up of adverse health consequences 

related to work at an incident.

o On up-to-date protection againstillnesses and 

injuries.

o On unsafe conditions or practices possibly 

indicating a lack of adequate training.

Who to Monitor

• Incident personnel who are deployed to specific 

areas suspected to be hazardous.

• Personnel who are experiencing similar symptoms.

• Workers in certain occupations or with certain 

exposures.

Health (Injury and Illness) Surveillance

• Involves the collection of different types of 

information, including medical, exposure, work 

history and activities, PPE, and training.

• Provides information useful for measuring the 

health impact at the population level, determining

Monitoring and surveillance helps to document and track incident 

personnel health status during and after an incident

scope of injury and illness, and planning for the 

next event.

Who to Include in Surveillance

• Incident personnel identified should be based 

on the type of work being performed, including 

duration ofthe task,materials being used, and 

potential for exposure.
ERHMS

Health Monitoring and Surveillance Data Q&A

Utilizing collected data to prevent or mitigate adverse 

health outcomes while ensuring responder safety

• What Are Potential Sources for Data?

o Monitoring: Exposure monitoring records, purchasing and 

production records, training records, health and safety-related 

policies, and operating procedures.

o Surveillance: Occupational Safety and Health Administration 

(OSHA) logs, healthcare facilities.

• HowisDataAcquired?

o Electronic transfer systems, records review,surveys.

• What Type of Worker-Related Data Should Be Obtained?

o Monitoring: Personal information, response-related information, medical information, biological monitoring.

o Surveillance: Denominator, demographics, category of worker, 

level of training, injury or illness.

• What Should be Done with Data after Collection?

Evaluate for quality; code, analyze, and interpret; disseminate in 

concise and easily understood reports; and communicate to stakeholders as close to real-time as possible.

Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance

The Emergency ResponderHealth Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS)systemis a healthmonitoring and surveillance 

framework thatincludesrecommendations and toolsspecific to protect emergency responders during the pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment phases of adisaster.The intent of ERHMS isto identify exposures and/orsigns 

and symptoms early in the course of an emergency response in orderto prevent ormitigate adverse physical and psychological outcomes and ensure workersmaintain their ability to respond effectively and are not harmed in the course ofthis 

response work. Data will also help to identify during the post-deployment phase which responders would benefitfrom 

medicalreferral andpossible enrollmentina long-termhealthsurveillanceprogram.Please referto Chapter6 andsection 

6T formoreinformationonHealthMonitoring andSurveillanceDuringResponseOperations.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ERHMS Contact:

erhmsonline@cdc.gov

For more information on ERHMS, please visit: 

www.cdc.gov/niosh/erhms