CHC - Emergency Preparedness

Don't be misled by the media !

2009-05-06T10:56:00.002-04:00

Please stick with the official word on the H1N1 pandemic. The mild nature and lack of fatalities afford us the opportunity to develop pandemic plans, practice our plans, and prepare for a much worse scenario, if or when this "novel" virus mutates and returns with much worse consequence.

Here is the lead story from the CDC:
"The ongoing outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) continues to expand in the United States and internationally. CDC expects that more cases, more hospitalizations and more deaths from this outbreak will occur over the coming days and weeks. CDC continues to take aggressive action to respond to an expanding outbreak caused by novel H1N1 flu."

"CDC’s response goals are to:
-- Reduce transmission and illness severity, and
-- Provide information to help health care providers, public health officials and the public address the challenges posed by this emergency."

"CDC is issuing updated interim guidance daily in response to the rapidly evolving situation. This includes updated interim guidance for clinicians on how to identify and care for people who are sick with novel H1N1 flu now that more widespread illness has been detected in the United States."

You can see much more by clicking on the CDC link on the left. Preparing you clinicians can be very important at this point, for there own safety as well as for patients and staff.

Thanks,
David

Where to begin ?

2009-05-05T15:38:00.003-04:00

It is so easy to ask this question when addressing emergency preparedness !
The answer is ......... (drum roll) ........... "at the beginning". You have to know what your "vulnerabilities" are, aka., "what could possibly happen in your community?".
The "Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA)" is a tool used to make sense of all the possibilities, and point you in the right direction. A very good template was developed by Kaiser-Permanente, and you can find it in the "More Info and Links" section of this blog.

Don't worry, complete instructions are included ! The actual determinations are very subjective, but there are many resources in your community with which you can begin. Contact your jurisdictional emergency manager, fire department, and law enforcement--and you should already have contacts in these agencies . You can also check with the National Weather Service (there's a link on the blog). Older, life-long citizens in the community, long-standing church members, and news services archives are also good places to look.

Once you know what you may be dealing with, ranked by probability and severity, you will have a justifiable idea of how to spend your precious few resources and time.

David

Easy sign-up for Blog and List ...

2009-05-04T17:47:00.004-04:00

An easy way to share the news about the CHC blog and list-serv is to send your friends and peers to: http://www.iflss.net/ReadyRx.htm .
There, they will find subscription boxes where only their email must be entered to receive an invitation. No information is kept or shared, except on the list and blog.
There are also links to the CDC web site for H1N1 pandemic.

CHC - Emergency Preparedness - Description

2009-05-04T08:30:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the newest "Blog" on the block ! "Community Health Center Emergency Preparedness"

This medium was created 1 May 2009 to facilitate an ongoing discussion for the development of emergency preparedness at and for community health centers. It will initially be hosted and maintained by David Chaplin, who is a consultant in emergency preparedness for hospitals and healthcare agencies. However, ownership is shared by the participating members. This blog is meant to be fair, useful, and free of politics.

The sole purpose of this medium is to have an informal means of asynchronous communication through which "responsible parties" at community health centers can share their experience and challenges with developing an emergency preparedness program at their center. There are many similarities among all centers, and yet each center's plan must be customized and tailored to its particular operation, resources, and community.

We look forward to less experienced folks asking many good questions, and to more experienced folks posting good answers. We all learn by asking, and we all learn by teaching. The desired result is compliance with the federal and moral requirement to improve the level of preparedness for anticipated emergencies in your community, and also knowing your role in assisting public health, hospitals, or government agencies during declared emergencies. We should also know when to say "when", and close-up shop.

So please participate; your $0.02 is more valuable than you might think. Your host will provide stimulus for discussion and guidance when necessary. The CHC-Emergency Preparedness blog is dedicated to your improvement !

D. Chaplin