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An update on the activities of some of our Regional Partners and news about initiatives the Resource Center has been involved with...
Maine Emergency Preparedness Conference 2010
"Creating Capacity When Your Beds & Health System Are Full"
A 50 bed surge capacity exercise was held recently at the Augusta Civic Center on April 12, 2010. Co-sponsored by Harvard University, this conference featured keynote speaker Steve Cantrill, MD, FACEP from the Denver Health Medical Center. The conference included tools & strtategies for optimizing medical surge capacity management, discussed the creation & operation of alternative care sites (ACS), implementaion of Crisis Standards of Care and took a look at the EMS integration into the health system response. Attendees from all three Maine regions attended and the response/feedback was very positive. The day concluded with individual workshops focusing upon creating alternative care sites.
Region Wide Amateur Radio/Communications Exercise
Summer 2009
A region wide communications exercise was conducted recently that involved the Central Maine area hospitals, Emergency Management Agencies, area amateur radio clubs, local Health Centers and the Red Cross. This was deemed a very successful drill that accomplished its objectives of establishing amateur radio contact and 2-way communications between all the aforementioned players. Call the Resource Center for additional information on participants, results and future drills. Special thanks to ARES and EMA for their assistance.
Medical Center in Leeds Receives Federal Money
DFD Russell Medical Center in Leeds has been awarded $511,520 in Recovery Act Funding, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree announced Monday. DFD is one of 18 medical centers in Maine awarded with over $10 million in federal money intended to support construction, renovation and repair work at the centers throughout the next two years.
"This Recovery Act money will create construction jobs locally and improve access to health care for thousands of Maine people," Pingree said.
Lauri Kane-Lewis, chief executive officer at DFD Medical Center, said, "We received funding on Monday and are ecstatic to be able to serve the community."
The primary care center plans to create much-needed repairs and upgrades over the next two years. Plans to build a garage to house an ambulance are also in the works.
Kane-Lewis said DFD will send out notices to the community about possible projects in the next 30 to 60 days and hopes to begin renovations, repairs and construction by winter.
"We're using all local contractors," she said.
The $10 million granted to Maine is part of the $851 Million in grants made under the capital improvement program, First Lady Michelle Obama announced.
Respirator Update: As some of you might be aware, the existing Powered Air Purifiying Respirators (PAPRs) from Global Secure Safety Products, Inc. (formerly Netoterik) will soon be listed as Obsolete and Certificates of Approval from NIOSH will be revoked at the end of 2009. As these are the PAPRs originally purchased by the Regional Resource Centers and distributed to Maine hospitals, the revocation of NIOSH approval represents a serious step backwards in our emergency preparedness efforts across our statewide healthcare system. To try to resolve this problem, the RRCs will be looking at replacement PAPR systems and have begun investigations of NIOSH-approved, hospital patient care environment-appropriate systems. We anticipate future meetings & possible demonstrations with manufacturers and vendors over the coming weeks and will keep you informed of the ongoing search.
Pediatric Emergency Preparedness Training
Sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health, the Central Maine Resource Center hosted this recent workshop at the Augusta Civic Center. This one day event targeted health care professionals such as ER physicians and nursing staff, paramedics and EMTs, school nurses and teachers, hospital ER workers and other public health professionls who work with pediatric patients and clients. The topics presented included the triage of Pediatric patients, tracking & reunification during and after a disaster,roles & responsibilities of schools in disaster prepareddness and psychosocial needs of children during a disaster. Attendance at the conference was high and judging from the evaluations, a huge success.
ADVANCED CLINICAL ASPECTS OF DISASTER MEDICINE
Sponsored by the Central Maine Regional Resource Center for Emergency Preparedness, over 75 attendees from around New England attended an advanced disaster medicine conference held recently at the Haraseeket Inn in Freeport. Presented by members of Central Maine Medical Center’s Trauma team, the topics included Trauma Triaging, Blast Injuries & Burn Injuries in patients, Medical Planning for Mass Gatherings and Pediatric Considerations for Mass Casualty Incidents.
Among the people attending were members of the Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont Metropolitan Medical Response Systems. Better known as Strike Teams, these are specially trained crews which respond to and provide medical support to multiple mass casualty incidents and gatherings. Numerous first responders, hospital employees and other emergency medicine providers from the Central Maine Region also took part in the all day training.
This one-day program was designed to serve as an “awareness” course and to provide the attendee with information regarding the scope of components of medical disaster activities, their implications, and methods of incorporation into decision making in emergency medicine systems such as emergency rooms. At the conclusion of the course, the participants better understood the principles involved in medical disaster care which including dealing with Mass Casualty Incidents and were better able to address many of the complex tasks facing today’s healthcare professional. Judging from program evaluations, most attendees agreed the program was huge success.
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SPECIAL INTEREST TERRIORISM & CLANDESTINE LABS PRESENTATION
The Resource Center recently hosted a special interest terriorism seminar featuring Bill Schaubel who gave a fascinating presentation focusing on special interest terrorism and as an extra bonus, the dangers of dealing with clandestine meth labs. Bill, who works as an instructor for the FEMA Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston is the law enforcement subject matter expert and also serves as the Improvised Explosive Devices Instructor. His talk was spellbinding as he shared his knowledge about anti-abortion extremists, animal liberation activists, Eco-terrorists and other groups operating in the country that one might not think of, or describe as terriorists. Presented in two different locations over the course of two days, these talks were well attended and praised by all attendees.
County Full Scale Exercise
A tabletop exercise involving Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties was held in October 2007. Future planning involved setting additional goals & objectives for a full scale 3 county disaster exercise involving first responders, law enforcement, fire and rescue and the local hospitals. A regional functional exercise was held on Saturday, May 3, 2008 in Canton and the full scale drill was held on Saturday, October 11th, 2008. The after action report (AAR) was published online shortlyafterward. Contact http://www.megalink.net/~oxctyema/2008_exercise.htm FMI, to read the previous After Action Reports or to join the planning for the upcoming 2009 drill.
HOSPITAL INCIDENT COMMAND (HICS) TRAIN THE TRAINER COURSE
Co-sponsored by all three Maine Regional Resource Centers on June 26 & 27, 2007 at the Senator Inn in Augusta, this course was presented by staff from the Washington Hospital Center and Kaiser Permanente Medical Sytem. This sixteen-hour HICS Course provided the attendees with a thorough understanding of the Incident Management Team positions and roles and correct use of the HICS tools. The group discussed the role of the hospital in community emergency preparedness and response and collaborative planning and includeda facilitated tabletop exercise. The instructors also discussed strategies for implementing HICS into the attendee's individual hospitals. This course provided training for Incident Command System (ICS) 100 and 200 and National Incident Command System (IS 700) and enabled hospitals to comply with Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and NIMS Integration Center mandates. Over 75 people from all three regions attended.
CENTRAL MAINE HOSPITAL SURGE CAPACITY EXERCISE:
PLANNING & PARTNERSHIPS TO ENSURE CONTINUITY OF CARE
A tabletop exercise designed to provide an opportunity for hospitals & their planning partners in the Central Maine Region to meet, discuss & test their surge plans was held in Auburn in May. Designed to help determine how hospitals, first responders and other organizations would work together to maintain provision of medical care in the event of an ongoing disaster such as pandemic influenza, this was a good opportunity for our regional partners to address concerns such as defining triggers that initiate changes to standard operating procedures as well as identify & examine the practical, ethical and legal issues that might arise from altering standards of care in a disaster situation. Over 80 people & agencies from the Central Maine area participated, and we all worked together to help answer the question, are Maine's hospitals and community partners prepared for the next hospital surge?
LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS IN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS:
A CENTRAL MAINE TABLETOP EXERCISE
A program entitled “Local Partnerships in Emergency Preparedness; A Central Maine Table Top Exercise” which was intended to test community response and improve readiness in the event of an infectious disease disaster was held in Auburn on November 30, 2006 at the Hilton Garden Inn. Co-Sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness and the Central Maine Regional Resource Center for Emergency Preparedness, this day-long program was designed to help local agencies involved in emergency planning, response and treatment to assess and improve their skills in dealing with a contagious infection calamity such as pandemic influenza. Over 135 representatives from Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec and Oxford Counties in Central Maine attended including local emergency management agencies, public health officers, local city and town governments, police, fire, emergency medical services, hospitals and community health centers. Attendees worked in multidisciplinary teams to evaluate their current emergency plans and protocols, clarified their own roles and responsibilities in an infectious disease disaster, practiced working together to respond to an emergency and promoted countywide cooperation and mutual aid and the resources available to the community. The facilitated debriefing at the end of the exercise showed that while the majority of the participants were prepared for minor crisis’s, the resources of most of the communities would be quickly overwhelmed in such a disaster and that a coordinated preplanned response is critical to maximize the ability to help preserve the health and safety of our citizens and responders.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS REFRESHER TRAINING:
The Central Maine Regional Resource Center in association with Central Maine Medical Center held an Emergency Preparedness Refresher Course recently and conducted their own Emergency Preparedness Training Course. Enrollment was limited to hospital staff members in the Central Maine Region who had previously attended one of the state sponsored HAZWOPER Courses. Over 40 people from our region attended including people from Central Maine Medical Center, Bridgton and Rumford Hospitals, Stephens Memorial as well as employees from both the Augusta & Waterville campus of Maine General Medical Center. Decontamination team personnel were able to refresh and update their skills on the proper use of their personal protective equipment, using correct patient movement techniques and using various effective decontamination practices. The course consisted of a lecture, which included a customized PowerPoint show which discussed refresher topics such as the new hospital codes, an understanding of HICS and the principals of patient decontamination, small group exercises and hands on activities using CMMC’s Decontamination Tent. The classes satisfied the annual training requirement for decontamination team personnel and the participants received educational credits as well. Post session evaluations stated that this refresher was much appreciated and the majority of participants indicated that more review training in the future would be welcomed. The next Emergency Preparedness Refresher Course is scheduled for the Winter 2009 and will be opened once again to the region’s hospitals. Please contact the Resource Center for more details.
INFLUENZA PLANNING:
Pandemic Influenza Planning is in full swing throughout the United States as well as the Central Maine Region. It is imperative that our region as well as our local hospitals be prepared for any pandemic by developing & maintaining a comprehensive Emergency Response Plan and a Pandemic Influenza Response plan. The Center's staff has been working on developing a working Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan with our regional partners. A tabletop Pan Flu Exercise that was held in November (see resource page), designed to assess and improve readiness for an infectious disease disaster brought together representatives from the Central Maine Region to evaluate their own emergency plans & protocols. Two good informational websites pertaining to Pandemic Flu Planning are www.pandemicflu.gov and www.maineflu.gov. The Maineflu website which can be accessed from here contains volumes of pertinent information for and about the residents of Maine. Stay tuned for further updates concerning the work being done on the individual Pan Flu Preparedness plans being developed.
MCI DISASTER DRILL:
A simulated mass casualty disaster drill coordinated by the Central Maine Regional Resource Center that involved local fire, police and rescue agencies from the Lewiston-Auburn Twin Cities region took place on Saturday, November 4, 2006 at Bates College in Lewiston. The mock event was a bleacher collapse that “injured” more then 20 people and allowed some of the region's first responder groups to assess both their response time effectiveness and test their clinical skills under a simulated situation that resembled a real disaster. The drill also involved triaging and transporting patients and victims to both St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Central Maine Medical Center and testing their emergency department’s response to coping with a sudden flood of patients. Along with Lewiston and Auburn fire and police departments, United Ambulance as well as Lisbon and Mechanic Falls emergency personnel responded as did the Bates College Emergency Services team. A Life Flight helicopter also arrived on the scene giving the participants a sense of realism while transporting a patient back to the medical center. Planned and financed by the Central Maine Regional Resource Center for Emergency Preparedness, two local Boy Scout troops from Auburn also participated playing the role of patients and victims. After the event a post incident debriefing took place where participants indicated that while the drill highlighted several small deficiencies in the response system, overall the strength of their clinical skills and the professionalism of the community rescue agencies and first responders were exceptional and that the Lewiston-Auburn area was in fact well served by such committed and capable organizations.
HAZWOPER TRAINING:
HAZWOPER training was held at CMMC this past spring. Central Maine Medical Center, Rumford and Bridgton Hospitals all participated. The Central Maine Medical Family now has 32 new decontamination team members who were trained and added to the hospital decontamination team list. The Resource Center is currently accepting registrations for the next HAZWOPER course currently scheduled for the fall of 2009. Watch for upcoming details of our self designed Hospital Awareness and Operations Course that is currently being rolled out to select sites. This 8 hour course will take the place of the previous 16 hour course that formerly was known as HAZWOPER.
NIMS INFORMATION: EMS103 WITH NIMS & EM 140 WITH NIMS
As most of you know, all individuals who will assume a position and/or leadership role in the Hospital's Incident Command System during times of an emergency or a disaster are required to become NIMS (National Incident Management System) compliant. The new NIMS Guidelines for hospitals and health care facilities list specific training requirements which include the following components; IS-200 Incident Command System (ICS), IS-700 National Incident Management System (NIMS), and IS 800 National Response Plan (NRP) all of which can be completed ONLINE at your own computer by taking the EM 140 with NIMS course as offered by Yale New Haven Health. Yale has developed an outstanding online course that will allow all healthcare personal to complete this NIMS compliance training at their own pace. Remember, this course is intended for department supervisors, managers, senior leadership, and those individuals in our institution who will assume a leadership role within the Hospital Incident Command System. This course is designed to provide the healthcare workforce with an introduction and understanding to the National Incident Management System (NIMS), Incident Command System (ICS), and the National Response Plan (NRP).
For further information or to answer any questions please call the Resource Center at 795.2920 or go to our own website for further updates.
Introduction to Emergency Management with NIMS (EM 103 w/NIMS) and Incident Command Systems for Healthcare (EM 140 w/NIMS) have been approved as compliant by the Department of Homeland Security, (DHS) the National Incident Management System (NIMS) & the National Integration Center (NIC). These courses are cost-effective, time efficient & provide a healthcare focused alternative to required FEMA courses. Together EM 103 w/ NIMS and EM 140 w/NIMS have been approved as meeting the required objectives of IS 100, IS 200, IS 700 and parts of IS 800.
UPDATE: Because of the Yale contract expiring, we are urging people to visit the FEMA website at www.traing.fema.gov to complete the NIMS requirements. The courses are now titled IS-100HC, IS-200HC and IS-700. The information is the same, the site where you can receive it is the only thing that has changed.
MOBILE RADIO PROJECT:
The regional surveys of the first responder rescue units in the Central Maine Region was completed with a accurate vehicle count that the RCC purchased new mobile radios for. This number increased slightly from the initial survey last year. Horizon Communications (our vendor) received a copy of the current EMS service providers in our region who were responsible for contacting Horizon themselves with a list of their own radio frequencies and a date and time for an installation appointment. Horizon reports that this project has been successfully completed, and that all of the services have in fact responded with all of the respondees having had their new mobile radios installed.
SECOND PURCHASE PLAN SUPPLIES:
Our region’s 10 hospitals and their partners have each received their second and final shipment of decontamination equipment and related supplies. Each of the hospitals also received a 20’ trailer for storage of the decontamination equipment. The next phase of the purchase plan involves training on some of the equipment received and to continue on-going educational efforts to better ensure that each hospital is prepared in an event of a disaster. The first of these in-services took place in December at Central Maine Medical Center when representatives from Aramsco and Atlantic Nuclear presented training on the MSA Sirus Monitors (chemical detectors) and the Emergency Nuclear Kits we received. An inservice on our Biological PAPRS sponsored by Aramsco took place this past spring at CMMC. Please watch for additional annoucements for futher trainings. Please contact the Resource Center with any questions you may have regarding your purchases or to obtain a copy of one of the various product in-services that were filmed and re-produced on DVD.
OTHER UPDATES:
The CMRRC is putting on the finishing touches to the updating of our current Regional Emergency Preparedness Plan as well as developing a hospital wide Decontamination and Bioterrorism Plan for Central Maine Medical Center. Drafts of each of these plans were given to the Hospital’s EP committee for review and are open for discussion. Pending approval, these plans will be made available to our regional partners for use in their own facilities or work place. Other CMRRC deliverables include continuing the development of regional Medical Response Plans for Emergency Preparedness as well as working with the Southern & Northern Centers in the development of & implemenatation of drills. This involves completing a Hazard Vulnerability Analysis and to develop Mutual Aid Agreements. Another objective would seek to collaboratively implement the hospital staff component of the Training and Education Plan. This would consist of the development of an equipment training plan and the coordination and deliver of priority trainings to hospital staff which has already started. Conducting drills and exercises to test various components of the Regional Medical Response Plan would also compose a key element of this year’s deliverables. We have been assisting our regional partners with NIMS & HICS hospital compliance issues by holding HICS inservices that requirement NIMS completions as a prerequisite. This is in addition to facilitatiing different courses such as an Emergency Preparedness Refresher Course, a self developed HAZWOPER course and an advanced HAZMAT Life Support course. A recent initiative has been surveying the Central Maine region's hospitals for their amateur (HAM) radio capabilites. Working with the local ham radio clubs, we have purchased individual radios for each of the hospitals not already equipped. Next on thier agenda is the training of individuals to Stay tuned for this exciting development. Please contact the Resource Center with any suggestions & concerns you may have. As always, we welcome your input and ideas!
Advisory Group
The Central Maine Regional Resource Center for Emergency Preparedness is a collaborative venture involving key partners within the Central Maine Territory including hospitals, health clinics and health centers, emergency medical service providers, schools, law enforcement, fire and home health agencies among others. As part of its mission the Resource Center sponsors activities for the improvement of emergency healthcare preparedness and coordinates and offers educational programs to our area partners. In 2004 meetings were held in Augusta, Farmington, and Lewiston to advertise to all public safety and healthcare agencies that the Central Maine Regional Resource Center had been created. Our original mission as funded by the Bureau of Health was to collaboratively develop a regional emergency response plan for healthcare and build the infrastructure to operationalize the plan. To do this, an advisory group of representatives from fire, police, emergency management, hospitals, long term care, schools, public health, EMS, home health, and others in the Central Maine Region met monthly to assess and evaluate the region's current capabilities, determine priorities for funding, and as a collective group, determine grant awards to undertake equipment purchases and/or capital improvements. At the end of the first year, advisory group members were then invited to a regional presentation that was held at the Auburn Hilton Garden Inn to hear updates on the progress made over that first year, discuss the work yet to be completed in healthcare emergency preparedness and to view the purchases made under the first year’s purchase plan. Over fifty-five people from the Central Maine region attended this presentation and judging from the level of interest displayed from the attendees, the meeting was a huge success. Advisory group meetings continue to be held on an bi-monthly basis for regular input from our regional partners. To inquire about our activities or to become a member of our advisory group please contact the Resource Center.
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