November 20, 2019 Membership Meeting Notes
SCWIHERC Updates:
As of October 23, SCWIHERC is incorporated, now we are seeking nonprofit status to help support our long-term sustainability.
Our spring tabletop exercise topic is healthcare system recovery. The scenario will be written to engage all core partners: hospitals, public health, EMS, emergency management, and other healthcare providers. Tentative dates are April 14-16. We need exercise design team members, please let Jennifer know if you are interested in being on the design team.
The coalition surge test will be taking place again in late winter. We need to simulate evacuation of 430 patients to meet our 20% surge threshold required by our grant. If you are interested in volunteering to be an evacuating hospital, please let Jennifer know. If we do not have enough volunteers, we will ask hospitals directly to meet our federal requirements.
A training matrix was distributed listing all upcoming trainings for the remainder of the grant year. That information is summarized here: http://www.scwiherc.org/category/training/http://www.scwiherc.org/category/training/
CORRECTION: the training matrix had an error, the PER 211: Medical Management of CBRNE Incidents is May 18-19, NOT May 17.
Tracey Froiland, Fox Valley HERC Coordinator, presented on their Infectious Disease Go-Team. They pioneered this novel concept of forming a team to care for high consequence infectious disease patients in their home using telemedicine. This specially-trained team can also support caring for these patients in a hospital setting. See their promotional video for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4O3ZWkJgJ8
Tracey’s slides will be available in the SCWIHERC shared drive soon.
We had several partners present on different organizations that provide human personnel assets used in response. Presentation highlights:
WEAVR- Wisconsin Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry: https://weavrwi.org/
Individual registry- Wisconsin’s ESAR-VHP. A database of individuals who can support the health needs of an incident. Pre-registered individuals have been vetted through a background check and credential verification. Individuals who are registered in WEAVR and deployed through a WEAVR request during a federal or state declared emergency are offered liability protection through Wisconsin Statute 257. The state is seeking clarification from the Office of Legal Counsel on whether this liability protection is available in the absence of federal or state declaration.
Registration in WEAVR is not a commitment to serve in any emergency. Please encourage your staff and partners to register!
MRC- Medical Reserve Corps. Brenda Lutz-Hanson presented on the Region 4 MRC and the purpose, mission, and sustaining of MRCs in Wisconsin. The entry point for MRCs in Wisconsin is registering in WEAVR and selecting the affiliation with an MRC. Currently, Region 5 (SCWIHERC’s region) has no active MRCs. Managing an MRC is often, but not always, done by local health departments. There is some work involved, but federal grant dollars may be available to support this effort. Contact Jennifer for more information.
DMAT- Wisconsin’s Disaster Medical Assistance Team. Patty Scanlin presented on this asset. They deploy outside of Wisconsin to assist medical operations after disasters and for large, planned events such as presidential funerals or inaugurations. They have field hospital capabilities. DMAT personnel are vetted by the federal process that takes 1-2 years and train on personal time, but are paid during deployment. Deployment notice may be as short as 12-24 hours, and deployments can last from 10-14 days.
American Red Cross- Connie Miley spoke about the volunteer capabilities and opportunities with American Red Cross. They often support sheltering and mass care operations all over the state and country.
Team Rubicon- Jodi Moyer spoke the mission and capabilities of Team Rubicon. They deploy nationally and focus on debris cleanup but have other capabilities. They are a veteran founded organization and 75% of their volunteer force is veterans. They are supported by donations from individuals and companies, and receive no payments by individuals impacted by disasters.
A question came up about requesting and utilizing any of these resources. It is strongly recommended that all requests are made through local emergency management. This helps ensure that those affected receive the most appropriate resource for their needs, and also may have reimbursement ramifications if federal or state funding is available for incident response and/or recovery.
Svea Erlandson, WI DHS Training and Exercise Coordinator, facilitated our Training and Exercise Planning Workshop in the afternoon. We reviewed data from the training needs assessment survey, and then had a productive conversation about developing training priorities and how to support these with available trainings. The three training priorities identified included Ensuring the Continuity of Healthcare Service Delivery, Catastrophic Event Preparedness for the Health Sector, and Health Emergency Management Orientation for partners in Wisconsin. These priorities will guide trainings offered in the July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 grant year.
Our meeting concluded with discussion on special populations and triaging the most important needs according to life safety priorities.
Grant guidance on this topic: Support HCC members with situational awareness and information technology (IT) tools already in use that can help identify children, seniors, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and others with unique needs. Support HCC member agencies in developing or augmenting existing response plans for these populations, including mechanisms for family reunification. Identify potential health care delivery system support for these populations (pre- and post-event) that can prevent stress on hospitals during a medical surge event. Assess needs and contribute to medical planning that may enable individuals to remain in their residences during certain emergencies. When that is not possible, coordinate with the jurisdiction’s ESF-8 lead agency to support the jurisdiction’s ESF-6 (Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing, and Human Services) lead agency with access to medical care including at shelter sites. Coordinate with the jurisdiction’s ESF-8 lead agency to assess medical transport needs for these populations.
Jennifer also offered a definition for those with access and functional needs according to FEMA: Children and adults with physical, mobility, sensory, intellectual, developmental, cognitive, or mental health disabilities. Older adults. People with temporary or chronic health conditions (including taking daily medication). Women in late stages of pregnancy. People needing bariatric equipment. People with limited English proficiency, low literacy, or additional communications needs. People with very low incomes. People without access to transportation. People experiencing homelessness.
Based on this guidance and definition, the group identified these most urgent life safety priorities:
Electricity dependent individuals- how to find them before the incident, how to empower them to prepare for a power outage, how to care for them during a power outage, and how to partner with other groups to support these three capabilities. This includes home health, durable medical equipment suppliers, primary care providers.
Individuals with unreliable transportation options- planning for those who need transportation assistance for their medical appointments, and for those who don’t have the transportation means to evacuate when a community evacuation is ordered.
Individuals on medications for medical conditions- helping these individuals maintain an adequate supply of medications before an incident so they don’t run during an incident when normal suppliers may be disrupted, or if they cannot travel to refill meds. This includes working with other healthcare providers to share this message with vulnerable patients.
Supporting Home Health Agency Continuity of Operations- recognizing that HHAs are critical to keeping individuals with various conditions healthy and able to live at home, we will look for ways to support HHA continuity of operations so they can continue to do what they do every day even after a large or disruptive incident.
Meals on Wheels- supporting these agencies that meet the basic dietary needs of vulnerable individuals on a daily basis so that they can continue this important mission even after incidents.
Supporting better communications for these special populations, including the English as a second language community and those with low literacy levels. Not only translating written materials and having sufficient interpreter services available for every step of preparedness, response, and recovery, but also utilizing multiple channels of information dissemination. This can include traditional media channels like television, radio, and print, but also cultural and faith-based organizations that serve a role in gathering and outreach to these individuals and groups.
Important partners to engage in supporting these important missions can include local human services agencies, primary care organizations, home health agencies, long-term care organizations, Aging and Disability Resource Centers, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) nutrition programs, 211 and United Way, and cultural and faith-based organizations.
The next steps proposed by the group include inviting representatives from these important partners to a round-table discussion to more thoroughly explore how we can work with these partners to promote preparedness, and support response and recovery efforts for these special populations.
Meeting Attendance:
Bob Swenarski- St. Mary’s Janesville
Juan Cullum- Mercyhealth Janesville
Jodie Molitor- Sauk County Health Dept
Alice Salli- Mendota Mental Health
Mary Crowley- Juneau County Health Dept
Lisa Herritz- Ho-Chunk Nation Health Dept
Asa Rowan- Community Health Systems Beloit
Gail Scott- Jefferson County Health Dept
Samantha LaMuro- Fort Healthcare
Mike Hall- Monroe Clinic
Kelly Pederson- St. Mary’s Madison
Nikki Salas- Watertown Regional Med Ctr
Brenda Koehler Borchardt- Watertown Regional Med Ctr
Marie-Noel Sandoval- Rock County Health Dept
Douglas MacFarlane- Crossroads Care Center of Mayville
Tina Strandlie- Stoughton Hospital
Christal Foreyt- Gundersen Boscobel Hospital and Clinics
Josh Kowalke- Reedsburg Ambulance
Jill Lenz- Columbia County Health Dept
Susan Lorenz- Columbia County Health Dept
Mike Lohmeier- SCWIHERC Medical Advisor
Carrie Meier- Dane County Emergency Mgmt
Connie Miley- American Red Cross
Jon Erdmann- Divine Savior Healthcare
John Longo- WI DHS OPEHC
Tracey Froiland- FVHERC
Mike Stephens- UW Health
Sarah Mattes- Public Health Madison Dane County
Steve Haskell- UW Health
Patricia Scanlin- UW Health TAC, WI DMAT
Sharon Foley- Divine Savior Healthcare
Alison Chouinard- Rock County Health Dept
Julie Muhle- Beaver Dam Marshfield Medical Center
Marla Noordhof- Beaver Dam Marshfield Medical Center
Abbey Kuehn- Watertown Health Dept.
Sarah Stewart- Watertown Health Dept
Dan Michaels- Public Health Madison and Dane County
Dave Larson- Madison VA Hospital
Joe Meagher- Dodge County Emergency Mgmt
Jodi Moyer- Beloit Health System
Nathan Bubenzer- Meriter UnityPoint Health
Sue Matye- Iowa County Health Dept
Karen Sell- Prairie Ridge Health Columbus
Amy Hollis- Monroe Clinic
Svea Erlandson- WI DHS OPEHC
Brenda Lutz-Hanson- La Crosse County Health Dept
Jeff Ethington- UW Health OPO
Jennifer Behnke- SCWIHERC