Oct 4, 2023 | Disaster Planning for
California Hospitals
Overview:
A review of strategies for managing the pediatric winter viral
surge, including implementing surge plans and decompression
measures, to optimize patient flow. This presentation will also
address best practices and lessons learned with the goal of
equipping hospitals to be prepared to meet the inevitable
pediatric winter viral surge.
Oct 4, 2023 | Disaster Planning for
California Hospitals
Overview:
A panel of pediatric disaster subject matter experts from the
WRAPEM organization presented information on multiple aspects of
pediatric care issues. The events of the 2022 pediatric
respiratory viral surge and the lessons learned from that event
will be covered, including template guidelines for pediatric
contingency care standards. Experts will lead the discussion to
the clear need for enhanced telemedicine and pediatric mental
health services in our health care system, each to be discussed
separately.
Presentation materials from this session are unavailable
Presenters:
Chris Newton, MD, Professor, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital
Oakland; Milissa Chanice, Operations Director, WRAPEM
James Marcin, MD, MPH, FAAP, FATA, Professor and Vice Chair
for Research, Department of Pediatrics, UC Davis School of
Medicine
Merritt D. Schreiber, PhD, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics,
Department of Pediatrics, Lundquist Institute, Harbor-UCLA
Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Oct 3, 2023 | Disaster Planning for
California Hospitals
Overview:
The growing population of older adults in the United States with
complex medical conditions are typically the most severely
impacted by large-scale weather and climate disasters. A health
care systems’ ability to leverage technology and optimize limited
resources during an emergency is universal. Join us to learn
how the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) established the
Vulnerable Patient Care, Access, and Response in Emergencies (VP
CARE) Program to provide standardized data tools and guidance to
assist medical facilities with conducting outreach and care
coordination to vulnerable Veteran populations during major
emergencies.
The AFN Guidebook is a tool hospital emergency managers can use
to broaden their understanding of diverse AFN communities while
empowering them to develop hospital policies and procedures, risk
assessments, and Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs) capable of
meeting the complexities associated with serving the AFN
community during disasters.
Presenters:
Kevin Muszynski, Project Manager,
Support Services
Steve Storbakken, Director, Emergency
Preparedness & Environment of Care Compliance, Pomona Valley
Hospital Medical Center
L. Vance Taylor, Chief, Office of
Access and Functional Needs, California Governor’s Office of
Emergency Services
Chemical emergencies can happen at any time at health care
facilities. The impact may not only be to the facility but
patients, staff, and the surrounding community. To assist
hospitals and all health care partners, ASPR/TRACIE has developed
a “Chemical Emergency Considerations for Health Care Facilities”
resource to assist in preparing and responding to chemical
emergencies.
Presenter:
Jason Wilken, PHD, MPH, CDC Career
Epidemiology Field Officer
Danny Kwon, MPH, REHS, California
Department of Public Health
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.
In 2008, California established the Office of Access and
Functional Needs (OAFN) within the Governor’s Office of Emergency
Services.
The purpose of OAFN is to identify the needs of individuals with
disabilities and others with access or functional needs before,
during, and after disasters and to integrate them into the
State’s emergency management systems.
OAFN utilizes a whole community approach by offering training and
guidance to emergency managers and planners, disability advocates
and other service providers responsible for planning for,
responding to and helping communities recover from disasters. In
short, OAFN plans for the realities of disasters by integrating
access and functional needs into everything Cal OES does
including partnership development, outreach, training, guidance
and providing technical assistance.
Facilities that operate dialysis or opioid treament programs can
learn about emergency preparedness to assist before, during, and
after a critical event. View the 21 minutes
video.
Presented and shared by Steve Storbakken and Kevin Muszynski,
both of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, with CalOES Chief
L. Vance Taylor; these materials share techniques and resurces
for integrating Access and Functional Needs (AFNs) into your
disaster planning.
Following the Loma Prieta earthquake, patients’ access to care
was severely impacted by temporary closure of several dialysis
facilities. These closures demonstrated an obvious need for
additional disaster preparedness for dialysis facilities.
With funding from CMS, the ESRD Network 17 developed a
manual entitled “Disaster Preparedness: A Guide for Chronic
Dialysis Facilities” which includes best practices for
preparing for and responding to disasters based on
many lessons learned from the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Pediatric surge planning involves identifying knowledge gaps and
insufficiency of pediatric specific supplies. The purpose of this
Pediatric Surge Training Course is to help prepare general acute
care facilities to the challenges of pediatrics. The course is
designed for a target audience that has knowledge of disaster
planning.
The Emergency Preparedness Team at Rady Children’s Hospital
prepared this manual. This team includes physicians, nursing,
behavioral health, surgeon, safety supervisor, trauma, pharmacy,
security and disaster planning experts. The curriculum
development team conducted in-depth research of best practices
and other existing curricula to bring best practice.
The goal of this curriculum is to prepare hospitals and clinics
have the tools to respond more effectively in a disaster which
involves a surge of child victims.
In the event of a mass casualty incident, resources for treating
pediatric victims will be limited. Staff that is
inexperienced with pediatric critical injuries or illnesses will
result in an inadequate surge capacity. As part of
preparedness, each facility should predetermine their ability to
handle pediatric victims and develop a plan to be able to
increase this capacity based on a pediatric surge. There
are typically fewer pediatric victims in the event of a disaster
based on the assumptions related to population of pediatric vs.
adult patients in the general population. A conservative
estimate of pediatric victims for the purposes of planning should
assume approximately 15-20% of the victims are pediatric (15
years or younger). There are many disasters (such as a
school bus accident) that would alter this assumption. In
the event of a pediatric disaster or disaster that involves
pediatric patients, information listed in this document can
assist with appropriate response.
The Joint Commission requires all hospitals to have a
disaster plan in place; however, the formulation of hospital
guidelines specific to pediatrics is often omitted. This
document provides an outline of the necessary components of
hospital preparedness for disasters involving children
including the roles of hospital personnel in disasters.
The special medical needs of children make it essential that
health care facilities be prepared for both pediatric and adult
victims of bioterrorism attacks, including those resulting from
dispersal of airborne or foodborne agents.1, 2 Moreover, while
terrorist attacks on the United States have provoked the
development of guidelines for hospital responses to acts of
bioterrorism, few have focused on pediatric facilities.2
Compounding the problem is that many disaster plans that have
been designed for children’s hospitals are not designed to
accommodate large numbers of contagious individuals capable of
disseminating highly lethal infectious agents.
This document is designed to address the topic of converting
pediatric hospitals from standard operating capacity to surge
capacity in response to large numbers of children with
communicable airborne and foodborne agents.
Particular aspects of emergency care for children may be
especially difficult for rural hospitals to meet as they often
have less access to pediatric and emergency medicine trained
physicians.
The attached study “Pediatric Care in Rural Hospital Emergency
Departments”, was compiled using data analysis which
compared rural and urban hospitals’ responses on various
dimensions of pediatric ED care:
All hospitals should plan for pediatric patients arriving during
a disaster. The following document addresses the issues
surrounding pediatric emergency care during a disaster.
It is presented under the supposition that all hospitals need to
recognize the potential for receiving pediatric patients during a
disaster and appropriately plan for pediatric mass casualty care.
This resource is brought to you courtesy of New York City of
Department of Health.
As a parent, you are in the best position to help your child in
the event of a disaster. Just as you talk to your child’s doctor
about his or her health, such as what to do when your child is
sick or hurt, you can also talk to your child’s doctor, mental
health professional, or someone at your child’s school who can
help you and your child after a disaster.
The Kidney Community Emergency Response (KCER) Coalition
provides technical assistance to ESRD Networks, Medicare
organizations, and other groups to ensure timely and efficient
disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for the kidney
community.
The KCER Coalition strives to provide disaster preparedness
resources to save lives, improve outcomes, empower patients and
families, educate healthcare workers, build partnerships with
stakeholders, promote readiness in the community, and support the
ESRD Network Program.
Take a few minutes to browse the information about the Coalition;
Response Teams; and resources for patients, providers, ESRD
Networks, and emergency management. Feel free to contact us with
any questions.
