August 19, 2022: California Department of Public
Health (CDPHi) released a new guidance document on
wildfire as an update to previous guidance released in
2019.
The guidance provides essential information to those involved in
planning for and responding to California’s wildfire smoke
events. While the primary focus is Public Health, it incorporates
important information from related disciplines, including
environmental air quality regulation, to better prepare Public
Health Officials for this increasing threat.
Although Public Health Officials are the primary audience, this
information may be useful to hospitals and healthcare systems as
they plan for the impacts of wildfire smoke episodes.
This guidebook
and tool was funded through a grant from the California
Community Foundation and is presented as a free reference tool to
help Hospital Emergency Managers prepare, plan and conduct
exercises and training with local AFN communities. This tool
was developed for, and is intended for use by, emergency
management professionals in the healthcare industry.
All agency and organization websites selected for inclusion in
the ‘Access and Functional Needs (AFN) Hospital Disaster
Guidebook’ and any and all designations of ‘best practice’ have
been made under the direction of Steven Storbakken, Director of
Emergency Preparedness & Environmental Safety, Pomona Valley
Hospital Medical Center (PVHMC). Mr. Storbakken used his
extensive experience and expertise in hospital disaster
management to compile the listings in this tool.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, PVHMC will not incur any
liability, including without limitation, liability for damages,
arising from the content. All conditions, warranties and other
terms which might otherwise be implied by the law are excluded.
While the information contained in this tool will be periodically
updated, no guarantee is given that the information provided in
these websites is correct, complete, and up-to-date. Although the
‘Access and Functional Needs (AFN) Hospital Disaster Guidebook’
and the website upon which it is posted may include links
providing direct access to other Internet resources, PVHMC is not
responsible for the accuracy or content of information contained
in these sites.
This Operational Continuity-Cyber Incident (OCCI) checklist
provides a flexible template for operational staff and executive
management to respond to and recover from an extended enterprise
outage due to a serious cyber attack.
The checklist’s suggested operational structures and tasks can be
modified or refined according to an organization’s size,
resources, complexity and capabilities.
The checklist represents the best collective thinking of
private-sector cybersecurity and emergency management executives
of the HSCC Incident Response/Business Continuity (IRBC) Task
Group of the Health Sector Coordinating Council’s Cybersecurity
Working Group (CWG). It is not associated in any way with any
regulatory compliance program.
Ransomware is a serious and increasing threat to all
government and private sector organizations,
including critical infrastructure organizations.
All organizations are at risk of falling victim to a ransomware
incident and are responsible for protecting sensitive
and personal data stored on their systems.
This fact sheet provides information for all government and
private sector organizations, including critical
infrastructure organizations, on preventing and responding to
ransomware-caused data breaches. CISA encourages
organizations to adopt a heightened state of awareness and
implement the recommendations on this linked resource:
Kaiser Permanente has developed a revised
Hazard Vulnerability Analysis tool and
instruction sheet. Available as a planning resource only; if
sharing publicly please credit Kaiser Permanente. This tool is
not meant for commercial use.
This crosswalk provides a view of the CMS Emergency Preparedness
Rule for hospitals in comparison with The Joint Commission (TJC),
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Title 22, and
Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) requirements.
With resources at critically low levels across all regions of the
state, the nation, and worldwide, the best way to get supplies in
California is to request them through the Medical and Health
Operational Area Coordinator (MHOAC) Program.
A list of county MHOAC contacts is here,
and a reference guide for making requests — along with a chart
illustrating the flow of communication and resources
– is
here.
Instructions for requesting supplies through MHOAC — a process
that is tested annually with your hospital and disaster
coordinator during the November Statewide Medical and Health
Exercise — are below.
Hospital initiates the request to the MHOAC using a 213 Resource
Request (RR). Note: Even though hospitals often realize that
local, regional, and state caches may be empty, it is important
to continue submitting 213 RR requests to ensure the requests are
making it to CDC for potential fulfillment.
The MHOAC distributes any local supplies available.
If there are insufficient local/county supplies, the MHOAC
submits the hospital’s 213 RR to the Regional Disaster Medical
and Health Specialist to check for available supplies in the
region.
If there are insufficient supplies in the region, the Regional
Disaster Medical and Health Specialist submits the hospital’s 213
RR to the State Medical and Health Command Center, which is a
combined state command center of the Emergency Medical Services
Authority and the California Department of Public Health.
If there are insufficient state supplies, the Medical and Health
Command Center shares the requests with the State Operations
Center, which then — under the Governor’s emergency declaration —
makes a request from the Strategic National Stockpile and Vendor
Managed Inventory.
If you are using this process and not receiving a response
or the necessary resources you need, please contact Mary Massey,
vice president, emergency preparedness,
at mmassey@calhospital.org.
Psychological Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment: Provides methods
to link mental health to disaster system of care, mental health
triage tag, IT, and ICS/HICSi compliant job action sheets.
This Primer provides key information on the public health
emergency response to the COVID-19. The primer will provide
information & objective guidance (not legal advice) on emerging
issues of law and policy and serve as a quick briefing on core
legal preparedness and response issues
Pandemic events present multiple challenges to the health care
environment and the ability of the respiratory therapist to
provide mechanical ventilation to all persons in need.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Strategic
National Stockpile (SNS) is a repository of ventilators that
would be used to supplement the supply currently in use by the
nation’s acute care facilities. These ventilators can be
requested and allocated to areas of need in the event of a
pandemic.
ASPR TRACIE compiled and synthesized information from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local and state health
departments, and other open sources.
This response highlights resources for healthcare system
emergency preparedness planners to use while preparing for and
responding to infectious disease outbreaks with drive-through
clinic models.
Considerations and lessons learned from these materials are also
gathered and provided as points for consideration. ASPR TRACIE
reached out to members of its Subject Matter Expert Cadre for
information and will update this document with additional
operational resources and guidance documents as they become
available.
The Listen, Protect and Connect psychological first aid system
designed for families, neighbors, co-workers and first
responders. One version is an “all ages” family-to-family,
neighbor-to-neighbor version and two are specifically for
supporting children. One for parents and one just for teachers
and schools to use.
This approach suggests ways we all can support each other’s
resilience and coping before, during and after emergencies. The
approach builds on strengths and practices that families and
community already use and offer additional ideas and tools to
call upon in times of disaster.
A fact-sheet for parents and caregivers about infectious disease
outbreaks in your community. Knowing important information
about the outbreak and learning how to be prepared can reduce
stress and help calm likely anxieties.
This resource will help parents and caregivers think about how an
infectious disease outbreak might affect their family— both
physically and emotionally—and what they can do to help their
family cope.
Frequently Asked Questions about use of stockpiled N95 filtering
facepiece respirators for protection from COVID-19 beyond the
manufacturer-designated shelf life.
Note: this guidance is subject to change as
the situation evolves.
Solano County recorded the first U.S. case unrelated to
international travel, raising fears of a local outbreak — and
California hospitals are bracing for the possibility of large
numbers of coronavirus patients at a time many are already
stretched thin because of the flu season.
The 2017 update to the HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan aims to
highlight and build upon successes of the last decade,
making clear additional efforts needed to improve pandemic
preparedness. These efforts are described in the seven domains
that form the basis for the 2017 update.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the
California Department of Public Health have issued Health
Advisories and travel alerts on the Zika Virus. The Zika virus is
spread to people through mosquito bites. The most common symptoms
of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and
conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with
symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease
requiring hospitalization is uncommon. In May 2015, the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an alert regarding the
first confirmed Zika virus infection in Brazil. The outbreak in
Brazil led to reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome and pregnant
women giving birth to babies with birth defects and poor
pregnancy outcomes. For more
information.
