Regional Disaster Response Coordination to Support Health Outcomes Summary of a Workshop Series (2015) / Chapter Skim
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2 Evacuation, Patient Tracking, and Information Sharing in a Regional Response
2 Evacuation, Patient Tracking, and Information Sharing in a Regional Response
Pages 13-22
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From page 13... ...
• Existing trauma system models for patient catchment used in day-to day care can assist in patient transfers in a regional disaster.
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From page 14... ...
Speaker Michael McClendon -- director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness of the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Health Services -- said that because of the very recent memory of Hurricane Katrina just a few weeks prior, many more people elected to leave Harris County than needed when Hurricane Rita's path was projected. Evacuees from Harris County flocked to interstate highways all at once, causing mammoth traffic jams.
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From page 15... ...
Many local com mmunities exeercised their legal authoritty to shut dowwn interstate exits and instead of evvacuating to safe locationns, thousands of Harris County resid dents spent more m than 12 hours strandeed on the higghways. As a result of this experieence, McClenndon said, the state convenned local, state, and fed deral stakehollders to devellop a better evacuation plaan.
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From page 16... ...
The Center has more than 93,000 employees and over 6 million patient visits per year. The flooding from Allison caused evacuation of some 3,000 acute care beds and more than 500 intensive care unit beds in one of the two trauma centers.
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From page 17... ...
For example, if many gastrointestinal complaints in one area were found, they could quickly notify public health and begin epidemiological testing and surveillance. As noted previously in McClendon's Texas experience, Hurricane Rita followed just 2 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, so an opportunity arose for a system improvement.
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From page 18... ...
, currently a unique concept, was created in 2009 to coordinate all members of the medical community, including state and local public health, EMS, and city and regional hospitals, and has since grown to include business associations and the private sector in the region. The MIC is also linked to Boston's law enforcement fusion center, called the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC)
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From page 19... ...
As the entire health care system across the country continues to undergo changes, this type of regional public–private partnership involving health care, public health, and law enforcement could be a model for information coordination during emergencies. Even if a separate intelligence center dedicated to the medical community is not feasible, Osborn of the Mayo Clinic, added that including health expertise into fusion centers could promote better information processing, as well as understanding what risks are immediate and related and should be communicated to the health care sector across communities.
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From page 20... ...
Similarly, state and local health authorities may have not spent time considering needs on a regional level, so when large-scale evacuations or patient movements occur, there are gaps in systems or transparency is less than optimal. With this in mind, speakers and participants offered several suggestions for improving practices and policies related to evacuation, patient tracking, and information coordination:
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From page 21... ...
. • Trauma systems should share lessons learned about key data points to include in a regional disaster registry, to guide a pre hospital tracking system, said Jolene Whitney, specialty care program manager at the Bureau of EMS and Preparedness at the Utah State Health Department.
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From page 22... ...
• Including health expertise into law enforcement fusion centers could promote better information sharing, noted Osborn, as well as understanding what risks are immediate and related and should be communicated to the health care sector across com munities. Better understanding and communicating the value of adding a health component to Incident Command System and EOC systems already in place could also aid in this transition.
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