Hope to Action: Medical Equipment for Children Post-Disaster | Domestic Preparedness Photo: ©iStock.com/arto_canon
Resilience

Hope to Action: Medical Equipment for Children Post-Disaster

by Team MobileKids -

Effective disaster response and recovery involves the whole community. In the United States, there is a wide variation as to how families acquire durable medical equipment (DME) for their children with disabilities post disaster. DME is essential for those children to maintain their usual level of independence as well as their health and well-being. The absence of established process that enables children with disabilities to access DME is a significant gap in preparedness plans.

 
Resilience

Law Enforcement's Perfect Storm 2020

by Joseph Trindal -

Law enforcement is having a perfect storm with challenges in hiring, challenges in retention, and challenges with early retirement. This podcast is a follow up to a discussion that began in January 2017 with Joseph Trindal. Joe leads a team of retired federal, state, and local criminal justice officials providing consulting and training services to public and private sector organizations enhancing leadership, risk management, preparedness, and police services.

Commentary

Bringing Calm to Chaos: HICS & the Coronavirus Pandemic

by Andrew Roszak -

The hospital incident command system (HICS) was designed decades ago to provide a decision-making framework to manage incidents and disasters. Now, more than ever, health care systems are relying on HICS to help meet the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. This interview with Dr. Brent Kaziny and James Mitchell explores how Texas Children’s Hospital uses HICS to help keep their more than 16,000 employees informed, protected, and safe during this public health crisis.

Healthcare

Hospital Resilience-Operational Perspectives From COVID-19

by -

The concept of hospital resilience has changed in light of COVID-19. Despite planning and training for unexpected worst cast scenarios, one key assumption was not consistent with this pandemic response – that not everyone would be affected. This webcast discusses the gaps, challenges, and opportunities related to this ongoing response as observed by four experts in this field: Connor Scott, Craig DeAtley, Dr. James Terbush, and Dr. Craig Vanderwagen.

Preparedness

Earthquake Preparedness in Non-Earthquake Country

by Stephen Maloney -

On the afternoon of 23 August 2011, a rumbling in the ductwork was heard overhead in a chemistry classroom on the fourth floor of a brand-new building at Montgomery College in Maryland. As a laboratory safety class was getting ready to begin, the noise quickly transitioned to a swaying of the building – a motion that was soon recognized as an earthquake. The view from the window showed no ripples in the pond below, but dozens of students, faculty, and staff were evacuating multiple buildings. Although the consequences of an earthquake affecting the college would typically be low, the need to more formally address the risk than it had been in the past became apparent. By early in the Fall semester, the college developed a set of practical procedures and protocols to address the actual hazards that present themselves in a region of low earthquake risk, while considering the potential need to quickly assess damages and hazards that an earthquake might present.

Commentary

Disaster Support – Meeting Today’s Needs

by Catherine L. Feinman -

Despite emergency planners using worst-case scenarios and high-impact, low-frequency events when planning for disasters, experiencing an event in real time exposes gaps in those plans that were not foreseeable (or at least not included in the plan). Furthermore, as time goes on, resources and other needs naturally change. In order to meet today’s disaster support needs, continuous planning, reevaluating, and updating are necessary in order to minimize the impact of any disaster.

Commentary

Leader “Buy In” Is Not Enough in Emergency Management

by James Rush -

Too many elected leaders are not taking the leadership role in developing, reviewing, and implementing their emergency management programs. Many plans have been published by jurisdictions, only to be discarded when it is time to put those plans into action. During disasters, jurisdiction leaders are implementing ad-hoc plans that are not coordinated with their respective jurisdictions’ agencies and, too often, have disastrous results. This is indicative of jurisdiction officials delegating all aspects of planning to their emergency management agencies, without even being briefed on the plan, let alone taking ownership.

Updates

FLIR Wins $26M Contract Mod for U.S. Army’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle Program

FLIR Systems Inc. announced it has been awarded a $26 million contract modification in support of the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle Sensor Suite Upgrade (NBCRV SSU) program for the U.S. Army. FLIR is the lead integrator in modernizing the Army’s NBCRV system with improved and autonomous chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) sensors.

HHS Funds Development of Needle-Free Vaccine Administration Technology

Under an agreement between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Vaxxas, the company will undertake Phase 1 clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of an easy-to-use, high-density micro-array patch (HD-MAP) and other development activities for the patch. Micro-array patch technology has the potential to reduce the amount of vaccine required, which would help healthcare professionals provide vaccine to more people, an important consideration in a public health emergency.

DHS Recognizes DOI Lab to Perform Rigorous P25 CAP Testing

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s Project 25 Compliance Assessment Program (P25 CAP) has recognized a Department of the Interior (DOI) laboratory to perform independent third-party assessments of first responder equipment, enabling them to expand interoperable communications capabilities and coverage. Through this open-standards testing process, P25 CAP provides responders with confidence that the communications equipment they use will be interoperable, regardless of the manufacturer.

Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, 4 U.S. Senators, and 3 Former Federal Government Public Health Officials Launch the Capitol Hill Steering Committee on Pandemic Preparedness & Health Security

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, alongside 4 bipartisan U.S. senators and 3 former federal government public health officials, have launched a new educational initiative: The Capitol Hill Steering Committee on Pandemic Preparedness & Health Security. The Committee is a nonpartisan “off-the-Hill” group that convenes educational policy briefings and technology demonstrations for Capitol Hill offices, federal agencies, and the invited public focused on strengthening U.S. health security.

HHS Selects Third Pilot Site to Demonstrate Better Approach to Disaster Medical Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) awarded Denver Health and Hospital Authority a $3 million cooperative agreement to demonstrate how a Regional Disaster Health Response System (RDHRS) can improve medical surge and clinical specialty capabilities – including trauma, burn or other specialty care – during a national emergency and save more lives.