4/1/2009

Susquehanna Health Prepares For Spring Public Health Exercise

Susquehanna Health is preparing to reassure the communities that it serves that it is poised and ready to respond during any potential public health incident. Susquehanna Health’s three hospitals are part of a “North Central Task Force” which includes the counties of Bradford, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, Tioga and Union. On Friday, April 3 and Saturday April 4, 2009 twelve hospitals from these counties will perform a significant test of their public health and disease prevention capabilities as nearly 2,000 individuals are expected to participate in the “North Pharm” exercise.

“This exercise is a great opportunity to test the twelve hospitals participating and their abilities to provide pharmaceuticals during a public health crisis,” says Chuck Stuztman, administrative director of Prehospital Services for Susquehanna Health. He continues, “Some hospitals are performing a ‘table top or at their desks’ style of drill while we at Susquehanna Health will actively participate by actually setting up a site to distribute medication and test our institutional plan to treat individuals.”

According to Charles Bement, the Executive Director of the Bradford Susquehanna Emergency Medical Services Council and Chair of the NCTF Health and Medical Committee. “This exercise will be a real world test of our ability to distribute medications throughout the region in a rapid timeframe, and is one of the first tests of this size in a rural area anywhere in the country.”

“The NCTF is particularly prepared for a public health event due to the extensive
planning of all of our partners” said Merri Montgomery, NCTF Chair and Emergency Management Coordinator for rural Sullivan County. “Realizing that a disease outbreak could occur anywhere, we started serious planning about three years ago. We first engaged an emergency planning contractor to develop our plan, then put it to a small test to see if it would work. We exercised the plan here in Sullivan County prior to the 2006 school year with great success. A true partnership developed, lead by the Sullivan County School District”.

The NCTF Plan has several components which would simultaneously come into play if a health emergency were declared in the seven county region. These include a request to the state and federal government for pharmaceutical supplies, the rapid delivery of these to the 12 hospitals in the region and nursing sites, and the establishment and manning of 16 PODs or Points of Dispensing for well populations. “The PODs are our attempt to stop transmission before it effects the well population of the region”, according to Charles Bement.
Dr. Joseph A. Cocciardi, consultant for the group which developed the NCTF Plan, praised the Emergency Managers in the region for their proactive approach to public health. “In this region, both Health and Civil Emergency Officials are leaving nothing to chance; they not only developed a detailed plan, but are testing it under real world conditions to ensure it works”.

“The region has tested the plan in incremented phases”, according to James Vajda, Emergency Management Coordinator in Bradford County. “Once we knew that the plan could readily work, as we saw in Sullivan County, we tested it here”.
The second Task Force exercise occurred in Bradford County and involved multiple hospitals, as well as PODs and other facilities. “We have now tested components of the plan three times, and each time it worked very well” said James Vajda, “and we improved with each practice session”. Known as the Strategic National Stockpile, or SNS Plan, the North Central Task Force document identifies specific roles and responsibilities for all who may be involved in the response to a public health event.

“Our plan could not work without all of the volunteers who have been trained and
practiced their individual roles”, said Merri Montgomery, and while it took years to
develop, refine and test, we now believe we have the best system of its type in the Commonwealth.

While the planning process for this Spring’s “North Pharm” exercise initiated last
summer, the results will be measured during this weekend’s exercise, when all hospital and health care facilities, all PODs and all special sites are simultaneously alerted to “stand-up”, receive and distribute lifesaving medications. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Pennsylvania Department of Health are partners and participants in the exercise.