Book excerpt: Hospital Emergency Response Teams aims to provide authoritative training for hospital personnel in the emergency department, as well community-level medical service personnel, assisting them in times of disaster and emergency. Comprised of six chapters, the book covers various aspects of emergency response. Some of the aspects are the National Incident Management System (NIMS) implementation activities for hospitals and health care systems and the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) IV missions. The book also explains the implementation issues, requirements, and timelines in establishing an internal HICS IV program. It presents the assessment of likely mass casualty events and potential hospital impact. The book also features appendices for emergency response team checklists, PPE donning and doffing guide, ambulatory and non-ambulatory decontamination setup, ETA exercises, and ETA drills.The book is intended to provide understanding of emergency response to first emergency medicine professionals, first responders, security staff, community-level disaster planners, and public health and disaster management researchers. Common sense approach shows what really works, not what is theoretically achievable Forms, checklists, and guidelines can be used to develop concrete response plans, validate existing operations, or simply expand knowledge base The latest from OSHA, Joint Commission and NIMS (National Incident Management System) Cross-disciplinary author team ensures material is appropriate for all member of this important collaboration