In an effort to create uniformity in job-critical knowledge and skill sets among hospital emergency coordinators throughout Georgia, yielding improved emergency preparedness and interagency cooperation, the Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Public Health and the Medical College of Georgia's Center of Operational Medicine created the Certified Hospital Emergency Coordinator (CHEC) Program.

A focus group of emergency management, public health, and emergency medicine experts was convened. Twenty-seven critical and important tasks, skills, and areas of knowledge imperative to professionals were identified. Based on these, two novel courses were developed. The completion of these and other established courses available through the US government and the National Disaster Life Support Foundation, in addition to job experience, form the basis of the newly created three-level certification program.

Approximately 125 hospital emergency managers from all regions of Georgia have been trained thus far, and another four courses are scheduled for 2009 with an average of 30 students per course expected. Attendance at both the Basic and Level II courses has created valuable interpersonal relationships, professional familiarity, and a common educational baseline amongst the state's hospital emergency coordinators.

Georgia's CHEC program represents a novel approach to training and preparedness at the hospital level. Coordination between public health and academia has allowed for the sharing of knowledge and resources in an unprecedented way. This has created enhanced preparedness throughout the state and has emboldened interpersonal and interagency cooperation within the realm of emergency management.