May 2023 Newsletter
WELCOME TO THE HEALTHCARE COALITION OF MAINE NEWSLETTER
OUR MISSION
The mission of the Healthcare Coalition of Maine (HCCME) is to develop and sustain a powerful coalition of health care organizations, first responders, and other key partners united to save lives and improve health outcomes during disasters through preparedness, planning, response, and recovery efforts.
HCCME Preparedness Summit: May 10th, 2023
Registration closes May 2nd, so register now to join us!
Check the HCCME website home page conference banner for full agenda and additional speaker details!
Additional Master Trainer PPE Donning and Doffing Training location added due to high interest
The Healthcare Coalition of Maine is pleased to announce the addition of a free, in-person PPE train the trainer course to be offered on June 20th at Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta. Additionally there is still limited seats available for the June 21st training located at Southern Maine Healthcare in Biddeford. See flyer below for additional training details and register below for the training of your choice. Advanced registration is required.
American Hospital Association (AHA) Podcast: Big Changes with the New Rural Emergency Hospital Model
The Rural Health Redesign Center helps interested critical access hospitals and rural hospitals with 50 or fewer beds transition to Medicare’s new Rural Emergency Hospital designation. Learn more about the designation and its payment implications in this podcast from AHA’s special series on rural care providers.
FEMA has just released The 72-hr guidance for after a nuclear detonation
The release of this document will be followed by a number of videos that will illustrate its key elements and will be housed on FEMA CBRN Page: Tools for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Hazards.
See full guidance HERE.
Triple digit temperatures are affecting areas of the U.S. that historically never experienced them, including the City of Seattle, where home and facility air conditioning is rare or is not designed for extreme temperatures. Extreme Heat Events: Lessons from Seattle’s Record-Breaking Summers features health care stakeholders sharing how lessons learned during the 2021 heat dome incident and robust regional and local collaboration and communications during the pandemic facilitated connections during the heat wave in the summer of 2022.
Partner Trainings and Webinars
IPRO
TFAH
NASEM
NBSB
Recovery seminar series
NACCHO
All Clear
Your Worst Day: Emergency Preparedness and Response Educational Series
IPRO, Quality Innovation Network, Quality Improvement Network
May 4th @ 12PM ET – “The Impact of Trauma”. Register HERE.
May 11th @ 12PM ET–“The Media at Your Door”. Register HERE.
For healthcare workers, it is not a question of if, but when an emergency will strike. Emergencies can take many forms and are among the most disruptive experiences that healthcare workers might encounter. Being prepared not only saves lives, but can prevent financial and property loss, and ensure the safety and well-being of entire communities. Having a plan helps staff, patients, families, and residents know what to do, where to go, and how to keep themselves safe during an emergency, and ensures access to essential information and equipment. This Emergency Preparedness and Response Series, told through the lens of those who have experienced emergencies in their settings, will help you prepare and train for emergencies, and anticipate potential hazards when an emergency occurs. Flyer attached.
Congressional Briefing and National Webinar: Ready or Not 2023: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH)
May 3rd @ 2:00 PM ET. Register HERE.
Please join Trust for America’s Health for a virtual Congressional briefing and national webinar on our new report, Ready or Not 2023: Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disaster, and Bioterrorism. The past year alone saw the U.S. surpassing 1 million deaths due to COVID-19, decreasing rates of routine vaccinations, and increasing prevalence of health misinformation. In addition, last year the U.S. experienced 10 or more billion-dollar weather-related disasters for the eighth consecutive year. The report measures states' degree of preparedness to respond to a wide spectrum of health emergencies and to provide ongoing public health services. A panel of subject matter experts will discuss the nation's readiness for public health emergencies, examine the findings of the report, and discuss key recommendations for policymakers. The briefing will include time for Q&A from the audience.
Prioritizing Actions for Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Symposium Series
National Academies Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)
May 4th @ 8:00 AM-12:00PM ET
May 18th @ 8:00 AM-12:00PM ET
The purpose of this symposium is to convene global health planning stakeholders, including those in government and academia, and across health- and non-health sectors, to strengthen the capacity for evidence-based prioritization of global health capabilities. Objectives of this meeting are the following:
Review assessment tools and how, independently and together, they relate to national action planning.
Gain insight into how countries and organizations currently select priorities in funding for epidemic prevention, detection, and response.
Assess evidence for effective prioritization approaches to building disease surveillance and risk communication capabilities.
Identify governance structures that can support robust and reliable systems for global health investments.
Registration is free but must create a National Academies account to register.
Register HERE.
National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) Public Meeting
May 4th @ 2:00 PM ET. Register HERE.
Key stakeholder groups are invited to address the Board and share their ideas on issues related to current and future chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, and other disaster preparedness and response matters. Representatives of academia, professional groups, advocacy organizations, and U.S. state, tribal, territorial, or local governments will make comments.
Private Sector Preparedness Response and Recovery Seminar Series: Mass Casualty Impact & Recovery
Session 3: May 18- Setting Up Crisis Communications for Media Response
Session 4: June 15- When the Crime Tape Comes Down: Providing Immediate Crisis Support
Session 5: July 20- Reopening and Resuming Operations
Session 6: Aug 17- The Immediate Aftermath: What Short Term Recovery Looks Like
Session 7: Sept 21- Negotiating Mid to Long Term Recovery (NY)
Session 8: Oct 19- Post Incident Scams and Fraud
Session 9: Nov 16- Civil and Criminal Judicial Processes
Private Sector Preparedness Response and Recovery is holding a monthly virtual seminar series titled, “Mass Casualty Impact and Recovery,” which examines how businesses can better prepare, respond and recover from active shooter and other mass casualty events. Seminars are held the third Thursday of every month @ 12:00 PM ET. Register HERE.
Sharing Session on Workforce Development
National association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO)
May 23rd @ 3:00 PM ET. Register HERE.
A panel of health directors will discuss some of the challenges that local health departments have been experiencing in employee retention and workforce burnout, and how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues. This sharing session will provide both speakers and participants with an opportunity to share experiences and discuss ways to re-engage staff in their work, especially at the local level.
All Clear Emergency Management Group has the following upcoming free webinars:
aSPr
NHC
NACCHO
Partner Resources
Mass Casualty Hospital Capacity Expansion Toolkit
This optional toolkit includes four sections to guide ED, general inpatient, and critical care space expansion and basic additional staffing needs in the event of patient surge. The toolkit is designed around MCIs and trauma/critical care incidents that require a reactive, rapid response as opposed to those that evolve more slowly (e.g., an infectious disease outbreak) or with warning (e.g., hurricane) that can be addressed proactively over time.
The four sections include color-coded templates to reflect conventional (green), contingency (yellow), and crisis (red) operations that can help users prioritize the optimal initial and sequential strategies for a surge of patients based on available resources.1 Each section includes text regarding key additional actions or considerations that should be addressed to ensure appropriate use of the toolkit.
No-Notice Health Care Facility Water Loss: HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball’s Experience
Jake Marshall (Senior Director of Enterprise Emergency Operations, HCA Healthcare) and Toni Carnie (Safety Officer & Emergency Management Coordinator, HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball) discuss facility water loss considerations and their system's response and recovery from Winter Storm Uri in this recording.
This speaker series also includes recordings on how Lee Health prepared for, responded to, and recovered from Hurricane Ian and the 2022 long-term water outage that impacted the City of Jackson, Mississippi. Access the Healthcare System Preparedness Considerations speaker series recordings to learn how the health care field is incorporating lessons to continuously improve patient care and bolster provider and system resilience.
Resource Spotlight: University of Colorado Boulder Natural Hazards Center, Risk Communication and Social Vulnerability Guidance for Practitioners
This website synthesizes what is known about communication with at-risk populations from a multi-year partnership between the Natural Hazards Center research team and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources. It includes an annotated bibliography on communication with at-risk populations, a guide for practitioners, and a worksheet booklet which may facilitate communication with these populations.
NACCHO Releases Two Administrative Preparedness Resources
NACCHO, in partnership with Deloitte Consulting LLC, has released two administrative preparedness resources: the Situation Report Template and the Emergency Staffing Plan Template . These emergency staffing plan templates were created from a year-long grant-funded partnership between NACCHO and Deloitte Consulting LLC. The Building Workforce Capacity of Rural and Frontier Local Health Departments to Respond to COVID-19 Project focused on increasing the workforce capacity of local health departments that serve rural/frontier jurisdictions to effectively respond to, recover from, and build community resiliency related to the COVID pandemic and other public health emergencies.
Read more from NACCHO online here.
CONTACT US
Email your coalition coordinators at HCCME@AllClearEMG.com to assist you with any of your preparedness needs.
As a reminder, we recommend that you bookmark our website MaineHCCs.com and check in often as we are continually updating the calendar with meetings, trainings, and exercises!