Creating immediate surge capacity for critically injured patients
in a mass casualty incident (MCI) is critical in MCI response.
However, the current era of hospital overcrowding and emergency
department (ED) boarding has undermined the ability of the ED to
create surge capacity. Brigham and Women’s Hospital has leveraged
the buffer zone concept within their ED to temporarily and
rapidly increase capacity to care for critical patients during an
MCI. In this session, Dr. Goldberg will highlight Brigham and
Women’s Hospital’s experience with developing and implementing
buffer zones as part of their institution’s MCI plans and
highlight the lessons learned during the operationalization of
their buffer zone plan.
Mandated Training on the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System for Hospitals and Health Care Systems
The Hospital Preparedness Program requires hospitals that receive grant funding to train their leadership in the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System. This training is required for hospital emergency program managers and for personnel who are likely to assume an incident command position as described in the hospital’s Emergency Management Plan.
To help hospitals comply with this mandate, CHA offers this free web course to California hospitals, with grant funds obtained from California Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA).
Developed by Kaiser Permanente’s Healthcare Continuity Management Department, this course is approved by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as an equivalent Federal Emergency Management Agency course.
This course provides the training required to comply with the NIMS Implementation Activities for Hospitals and the grant activities including:
ICS 100: Basics of ICS
ICS 200: Applying ICS to Health Care Organizations
IS 700: Introduction to NIMS
This course is required for:
Emergency Preparedness Committee Members
Emergency Program Managers
Any personnel who are likely to assume an incident command position described in the hospital’s Emergency Management Plan
Any personnel that would assume a leadership role in emergency preparedness, incident response or the Hospital Command Center (Hospital Emergency Operations Center).
The IS-800 course is available through FEMA’s website. The course
introduces participants to the concepts and principles of the
National Response Framework.
At the end of this course, participants will be able to describe:
The purpose of the National Response Framework.
The response doctrine established by the National Response
Framework.
The roles and responsibilities of entities as specified in
the National Response Framework.
The actions that support national response.
The response organizations used for multiagency coordination.
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) offers a
structured, proactive approach for different government
departments, agencies, non-governmental organizations, and
businesses to collaborate effectively.
It aims to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from,
and mitigate the impact of incidents, no matter their cause,
size, location, or complexity. The goal is to minimize loss of
life, property damage, and harm to the environment.
NIMS works alongside the National Response Framework (NRF). While
NIMS provides the blueprint for incident management, the NRF
establishes the framework and processes for national-level
incident management policies.
CHA’s NIMS Compliance Objectives tool was developed to
assist hospitals with National Incident Management System (NIMS)
implementation. The compliance objectives are mandated, however
the examples to achieve compliance are only suggestions.
Hospitals may have other means for demonstrating compliance:
