Welcome to the The Readiness Dispatch. This newsletter is used for updates and information about the Emergency Credentialing Program and the
Medical Reserve Corps. If you would like to share a story or best practice information, please contact Katherine McCormack, RN, MPH at kmccor4040@aol.com. |
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In an effort to improve and streamline the CT MRC activation process, particularly after hours, on weekends or holidays a direct fax set-up has been established.
All future MRC activation requests
should be faxed per protocol using
the administrative fax number,
(860) 707-1907. All items faxed to this number can be retrieved at any time, even remotely. When sending the fax, it is important to send enough information regarding the scope and specifics in which a decision can be made regarding this request. For more information, please contact Mary.Duley@ct.gov.
Administrative Fax: (860) 707-1907 |
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If a state behavior health response team responds to an event, an activation request must go through appropriate emergency management channels. For questions, please contact Mary.Duley@ct.gov. Please see chart below for the request and activation process for CT-DBHRN Behavioral Health Assets.
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The State of Connecticut Department of Public Health/Public Health Preparedness/Medical Reserve Corps held a Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon on September 23, 2011, at the Water's Edge Spa and Resort in Westbrook Connecticut. The audience consisted of medical and non-medical men and women who have dedicated their time and effort assisting the 17 Medical Reserve Corps units throughout the state of Connecticut. The CT Medical Reserve Corps is part of a national framework, which is coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security, and implemented through the Citizens Corps. Local units support public health efforts, while advancing the US Surgeon General's directives through mass vaccination; community preparedness drills and disaster response.
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Capital Region MRC at the
Voluneer Appreciation Luncheon |
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ECP and MRC volunteers are reminded that they should keep their contact information current. For questions, please contact your individual MRC leader or for ECP contact ecp@ynhh.org. |
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Copyright 2011. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES.
The site and all information contained on it are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. YNHHSC makes no warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of information contained on the site or that the site will be error-free or available for uninterrupted use. No advice, results or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from YNHHSC through the site shall create any warranty.
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Photo credit: Patrick Raycraft,
Hartford Courant |
At this writing, the Northeast is still recovering from Hurricane Irene a large, devastating hurricane that moved up the Atlantic Seaboard in late August. The hurricane made landfall several times and on August 28th Irene made a third landfall in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn, NY where it became a Tropical Storm. Following landfall in NY, Irene traveled through CT, NY, RI, MA, NH and VT where areas suffered from the worst flooding in centuries.
Many homes and businesses experienced flooding and power outages that lasted for a week or more. The storm resulted in fifty-six fatalities and many more injures requiring emergency care. Hospitals which were able to remain open became overstressed with a surge of patients in the face of reduced staff, complicated by generator and other infrastructure failure.
The Connecticut Emergency Credentialing Program
(CT-ECP), a component of the federal ESAR-VHP program, can be utilized to support just such an event. Professional healthcare volunteers would work in their own professional role in a hospital in need, supplementing staffing and other services caused by a large surge of patients until such time as the hospital is able to manage with its own resources.
Enrollment is easy, taking just 10 minutes in most cases. Volunteers who opt to accept a deployment will have their liability and workers compensation covered by the state or the requesting facility.
Please visit www.ct-esar-vhp.org to enroll. If you need further information, please feel free to contact Joseph Filakovsky, DNP, RN at (203)688-4486 or joseph.filakovsky@ynhh.org. |
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 Shelter operations roles and responsibilities for assisting individuals with electrically powered medical devices was recently challenged with Hurricane Irene and the flooding that occurred after this event. Many citizens in our community use electrically powered medical devices, the most common being supplemental oxygen, on a daily basis. During emergencies, citizens may be required to seek shelter support. In most cases, these citizens are self-sufficient, but some may need additional guidance or support.
Individuals with oxygen concentrators, portable ventilators and other respiratory treatment machines, in most cases only require electricity to power the units. The shelter need only provide these individuals access to an electrical outlet. Other electrically powered medical devices, that may need to be re-charged, include electric wheelchairs, tube feeding machines, and CPAP machines, to name a few.
Individuals on liquid or compressed oxygen units may need to refill or replace after a disaster. Therefore, before a disaster they should identify their oxygen vendor and determine what kind of support they can expect from the vendor. Shelters with these patients may assist in contacting the vendor. However, the relationship is between the patient and the vendor. Shelters need not assume responsibility for this but should provide assistance.
If the need for oxygen is emergent, then the local EMS system should be activated. EMS will evaluate the patient and their oxygen requirements, but they will not provide oxygen tanks or remain at the patient's house. Patients who need continuing care may be transported to an area acute care hospital for further evaluation.
Use this opportunity to educate patients and families on the need to have an emergency plan to assure uninterrupted care. For questions or concerns regarding your activation protocol for electrically powered medical devices, please contact Mary.Duley@ct.gov.
Source: The Department of Public Health and the CT American Red Cross. (2011, August 30). Shelter Operations and Citizens in the Community with Electrically Powered Medical Devices who may Seek Shelter Memo. |
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 In the coming months, both prospective and current CT-ECP volunteers will notice a completely new look when they
access the CT-ECP website. A colorful, appealing new face that grabs your attention and beckons you to look further. The new site will have a simplified menu system to help you find what you need faster as well as the ability to allow you to post external CME/CE credits on your profile page, a change many of you have requested. The page will be more interactive and we will be able to implement some of the current social networking programs and relevant news feeds into the site.
Those with administrative access, such as our hospital/medical staff coordinators will also see increased functionality with upgrades such as the ability to do group emails to their volunteers, reminders for revalidations and more. Please stay tuned as we implement this process. For more information, please feel free to contact Joseph Filakovsky, DNP, RN at
(203)688-4486 or joseph.filakovsky@ynhh.org. |
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