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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Performance Measure HPP-PHEP J.2: Volunteer Management


Percent of volunteers deployed to support a public health/medical incident within the requested timeframe


How is the measure calculated?

Numerator: Number of volunteers (determined to be needed for the response by the public health/medical lead or other authorized official) that arrived on scene (including staging area or other designated area) within the requested timeframe

Denominator: Number of volunteers determined to be needed for the response by the public health/medical lead or other authorized official


Why is this measure important?

The immediate intent of this measure is to assess the timeliness of implementing key stages of volunteer management–from receipt of request, to activation of volunteers, to deployment– in order to determine key bottlenecks and chokepoints that inhibit the timely deployment of volunteers.

The broader programmatic intent of this measure is to ensure that the public health/medical lead meets requests for volunteers in a timely manner.

This measure is NOT intended to assess routine or day-to-day volunteer activities in HCOs.


What other requirements are there for reporting measure data?

  • Recipients may report the numerator and denominator of this measure by incident or exercise at the state, sub-state regional, or local level.

  • Recipients that experience two or more incidents or exercises involving the deployment of volunteers must report on at least two of those.
    •  One data point must reflect the recipient’s best performance (highest percentage).
    • The other data point must reflect performance that, based on a determination from the recipient, calls for focused quality improvement and, if applicable, technical assistance.
    • Recipients are encouraged to submit data on additional incidents and exercises as well. There are no specific reporting requirements or parameters for additional data points.

  • Recipients that experience only one incident or exercise involving the deployment of volunteers must report on it.

  • Recipients that experience no incidents or exercises involving the deployment of volunteers do not need to report on this measure; however, they must conduct a call down and acknowledgement drill. The call down and acknowledgement drill contains the following required data elements:  
    • Number of volunteers contacted (registered in the Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals [ESAR-VHP] system)
    • Number of volunteers contacted (registered in other systems)
    • Number of volunteers in the ESAR-VHP system that acknowledged contact within the requested timeframe
    • Number of volunteers registered in other systems that acknowledged contact within the requested timeframe
    • The requested timeframe for acknowledgment (e.g., four hours, eight hours, 12 hours, etc.)
    • Date of call down drill

  • The call down and acknowledgement drill (above) may not be reported in lieu of PM HPP-PHEP J.2 if incidents or exercises involving actual deployment of volunteers occurred in the fiscal year.

  • In future years, recipients may be required to exercise actual volunteer deployment if there are no volunteer deployments during a public health/medical incident in consecutive fiscal years.


How does this measure align with the Medical Countermeasures (MCM) Operational Readiness Review (ORR) tool?

While there are no direct links between HPP-PHEP J.1 and J.2 and the MCM ORR, there are various activities related to volunteer management that are applicable to both.


What data must be reported?

  1. This PM is required if an incident/exercise involving the management of volunteers occurred within the past fiscal year. Did an incident/exercise involving the deployment of volunteers occur?
    • Yes
    • No [If no, only Question 15 is required]

For each incident or exercise reported, please enter the following information:

  1. The number of volunteers who arrived at staging area/on scene within the requested timeframe (numerator) [Max five digits].

  2.  The number of volunteers determined to be needed for the response by the public health/medical lead or other authorized official (denominator) [Max five digits].

    Of these:
    1. Number of deployed volunteers registered in ESAR-VHP [Max five digits]
    2. Number of deployed volunteers registered in other systems [Max five digits]
    3. Total (System Calculated) [Max five digits] (Note: Sum of 3a and 3b must equal value entered for Question 3)

      Percent of volunteers deployed to support a public health/medical incident within an appropriate timeframe. (System Calculated) (PM for HPP/PHEP J.2)

  3. Requested timeframe for on-scene (including staging area or other designated area) arrival of volunteers [Max 100 characters]

  4. The request for volunteers occurred during a(n): [Select one]
    • Incident
    • Full Scale Exercise
    • Functional Exercise
    • Drill

  5. This incident or exercise utilized or demonstrated one or more functions within the: [Select one]
    1. HPP Volunteer Management Capability 17
    2. PHEP Volunteer Management Capability
    3. Both HPP and PHEP Volunteer Management Capabilities

  6. The name and date of the incident or exercise.
    • Name [Max 100 characters]
    • Date [MM/DD/YYYY]

  7. The type of incident or exercise upon which the request for volunteers was based: [Select only one, even if multiple hazards existed in one incident]
    • Extreme weather (e.g., heat wave, ice storm)
    • Flooding
    • Earthquake
    • Hurricane/tropical storm
    • Hazardous material
    • Fire
    • Tornado
    • Biological hazard or disease, please specify [Max 100 characters]
    • Radiation
    • Other, please specify [Max 100 characters]

  8. The entity that made the original request for volunteers [Select one]
    1. Local health department
    2. State health department
    3. Health care organization
    4. Health care coalition
    5. Other, please specify: [Max 100 characters]

  9. The requested location for the deployment [Select one]
    1. Staging/assembly area(s) (not actual incident site)
    2. Hospital(s)
    3. Shelter(s)
    4. Point(s) of Dispensing (POD or PODs)
    5. Alternate care site(s), please specify [Max 750 characters]
    6. Other, please specify [Max 100 characters]

  10. The number of volunteers who were contacted for potential deployment [Max five digits]

  11. Please indicate any barriers to deploying volunteers to support a public health/medical incident within requested timeframe. [Select all that apply]
    1. Communication
    2. Equipment
    3. Funding
    4. Participation
    5. Policies/procedures
    6. Resource limitations
    7. Staffing
    8. Time constraints
    9. Training
    10. Other, please specify
    11. None

  12. Continuous Quality Improvement:
    1. Were relevant corrective action/improvement plan items from prior responses (including exercises, drills, etc.) related to volunteer management incorporated into planning and/or response procedures before this incident/drill took place?
      • Yes
      • No
      • Some
    2. Have corrective action/improvement plan items related to volunteer management been identified as a result of this incident/drill?
      • Yes
      • No
    3. Have they been implemented?
      • Yes
      • No

  13. [Optional] Please provide any additional clarifying, contextual, or other information. [Max 1,000 characters]

  14.  Recipients that experience no incidents or exercises involving the deployment of volunteers do not need to report on this measure; however, they must conduct a call down and acknowledgement drill. Please enter the following information on the call down drill:
    1. Number of volunteers contacted (registered in the ESAR-VHP system) [Max five digits]
    2. Number of volunteers contacted (registered in other systems) [Max five digits]
    3. Number of volunteers in the ESAR-VHP system that acknowledged contact within the requested timeframe [Max five digits]
    4. Number of volunteers registered in other systems that acknowledged contact within the requested timeframe [Max five digits]
    5. Requested timeframe for acknowledgment: Hours/minutes


How is this measure operationalized?

The numerator and denominator for this measure should refer to aggregate numbers of volunteers across a given incident. For example, the public health/medical lead determines in Week 1 of an incident that 100 volunteers are needed. In Week 2, it is determined that an additional 100 volunteers are needed. The denominator for this incident is 200.

Recipients should ensure that the number of volunteers included in the denominator does not refer to the total number of potential volunteers that have been contacted to determine deployment availability or “requested” to deploy. It should only refer to the number of volunteers that the public health/medical lead has determined are needed for the response and has requested for the incident. This number may or may not coincide with how many have been “requested” to deploy via a call down or activation and should be independent of how many are known to be available. For example, the public health/medical lead determines that 75 volunteers are needed on-scene within three days. She makes this request to the state volunteer coordinator, who contacts 900 individuals currently in the ESAR-VHP database. After contacting the entire database of potential volunteers, the volunteer coordinator informs the public health/medical lead that only 20 are available for deployment. The public health/medical lead agrees to take however many are available. Twenty volunteers arrive at the staging area within the three day timeframe. The numerator for this incident is 20. The denominator is 75. The denominator is not 20 even though the public health/medical lead “agrees” that 20 is acceptable, since this number did not reflect true need, but rather was a function of how many volunteers were available for deployment. Similarly, the denominator is not 900, as this number simply reflects how many individuals were contacted for potential deployment.


Key Measurement Terms

Deploy: Deployment is defined as the movement of activated volunteers to a staging area or assigned mission location, such as the scene of an incident, planned event, or exercise.

Out-processing volunteers: Out-processing volunteers refers to the return of equipment, operational debriefing, and any transfer of command or responsibilities.

Request: A request is typically made by local response entities; it is a formal application (to the health and medical lead at the local, regional, or state level) to ask for a specified number of needed volunteers.

Requested timeframe: Requested timeframe is the period of time in which volunteers are requested to report for duty.

Responsible entity or entities: A responsible entity or entities refers to an organization at the recipient or sub-recipient level, which is accountable for completing the specific activity or element associated with one or more PHEP PMs.

Tracking volunteers: Tracking volunteers refers to the process, plans, or procedures to capture volunteer activities, roles, locations, etc.

Volunteers: Volunteers are individuals supporting the public health/medical incident, including medical and non-medical professionals (e.g., from the ESAR-VHP system, Medical Reserve Corps, etc.)



17. Volunteer management has been incorporated into Capability 4: Medical Surge.


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  • This page last reviewed: November 05, 2020