EMSI Completes Successful Deliveries of the Enhanced Initial Response ICS Course

In December 2017, EMSI successfully completed two deliveries of our recently revised and enhanced ICS-220 Initial Response course with an updated Initial Response Guide Book (job aid). This course focuses on the functions of Command and key members of the Command Staff, General Staff and a few Unit Leaders during the initial response phase of an incident.

Recognizing that most incidents are smaller scale and managed locally, our first delivery was for a private industry client who was assessing the course for inclusion in their worldwide ICS training program. Client attendees were senior members of their incident management teams who evaluated our course for applicability during their initial responses. Next, we piloted the program to IMT professionals, with a second delivery at the All-Hazards Incident Management Team Association (AHIMTA) conference that included over 30 participants from the U.S. and Canadian all-hazards incident management community.

EMSI received positive comments from these two deliveries, including:

Excellent course and well presented. The EMSI Initial Response Guide Book is a definite asset and enhanced the lecture and all activities. Good use of real world situations to reinforce course objectives. I will highly recommend this class to my peers.

• This was an excellent class for me given my training, experience, and role as a first responder – in addition to my additional duty as an IMT member.

• Great course for initial responders.

• Really enjoyed class. We can use this in the future for within our department. Gave some great ideas on how to handle larger scale, high risk incidents.

• The exercise was great and I was really impressed by the quality of the supporting materials. All of the instructors were great.

• This was my first ICS training course and I was completely satisfied with the content and presentation. I feel like I now have a solid foundation to build ICS knowledge.

• As advertised, this class really fills a gap in ICS training. There is no other course that I am aware of that covers initial response ICS in such detail, preparing first responders to manage the initial stages of an evolving incident. Well done EMSI!

Recognizing a critical ICS training shortfall, EMSI developed ICS-220 Initial Response Team, an advanced ICS training course greatly expanding on initial response management concepts, to better prepare response personnel for managing the often chaotic and dynamic initial stages of the response, with additional focus on a prolonged posture in this critical portion of an incident lifecycle.

Given that approximately 95% of all incidents never leave what is often referred to as the stem of the Planning “P” (the Operational Planning Cycle), the standard NIMS All-Hazard ICS training curriculum is substantially deficient in addressing today’s complexities in preparing responders to effectively utilize ICS in the chaotic and dynamic initial response phase of an incident. While ICS-200 is a system course intended for single resources and initial action incidents, the concepts tend to be more foundational and less practical. The next level of system training, ICS-300, quickly jumps out of the initial response phase and focuses on “expanding incidents”, while placing a heavy emphasis on the proactive, managed phase of the incident, typically referred to as the cyclical part of the Planning “P”, for Type 3 (Tier 2) and beyond incidents.

This new ICS-220 is now officially available in EMSI’s catalog of courses and our updated Guide Book will be available in print and electronically soon. If you are interested in scheduling a course or would like more information on ICS-220, please contact EMSI.

Since inception in 2000, EMSI has played a major role in helping government and industry clients alike, prepare, train, and respond to emergencies of any cause or size. Comprised of national and international all-risk, all-hazard response experts, EMSI’s seasoned cadre gives us a unique background and perspective in dealing with incident and responder needs at every level of government and industry, to include the international community. As a global response leader in all-risk, all-hazard, multi-discipline incidents, EMSI has a proven track record in helping the myriad of local, state, national, international, and private sector entities with their incident management and emergency management programs.

EMSI is a service-disabled veteran owned, minority business enterprise (MBE) that supports a broad range of clients. To learn more about EMSI and how we can help your organization’s response preparedness, please visit www.emsics.com.