The California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) has released an updated version of the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), an incident management system to help hospitals improve their emergency planning and response capabilities.  Formerly known as the Hospital Emergency Incident Command System, HICS consists of a guidebook and planning and training tools developed by a national panel of experts with support from the AHA and its American Society for Healthcare Engineering.  Based on the Incident Command System used by various jurisdictions and agencies to manage field-level incident management operations, HICS will help hospitals implement the 17 elements of the Hospital-Based National Incident Management System, which were released last month by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Questions about HICS may be emailed to EMSA at hics@emsa.ca.gov, and the answers will be posted in future FAQ’s on the EMSA website at www.emsa.ca.gov/hics/hics.asp. (Reprinted from AHA News Now, Oct. 20, 2006).