HICSⁱ is an incident management system based on the Incident Command System (ICS), that assists hospitals in improving their emergency management planning, response, and recovery capabilities for unplanned and planned events.

HICS should be activated during an emergency event or exercise. However, HICS can also be effective in managing non-emergency events (e.g. a hospital move into a new building, planned power outage, etc.).

The Hospital Command Center (HCC) is the location of the command staff as defined by HICS. The HCC should have specific characteristics and resources to maximize functionality. The HCC will likely be activated by the Incident Commander at the time of HICS activation.