HICS is an incident management system based on principles of the Incident Command System (ICS), which assists hospitals and healthcare organizations in improving their emergency management planning, response, and recovery capabilities for unplanned and planned events. HICS is consistent with ICS and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) principles.

The principal beneficiaries of HICS will continue to be anyone witha response role during a crisis including hospital physicians, nurses, and administrators. Community partners with whom hospitals collaborate (e.g., public safety, local health department, emergency management, etc.) as well as students of emergency management will find the information on this website useful in understanding healthcare response issues and incident command practices and tools used during various events with health impacts.