Please submit your events  by mid-December to the January, 2010 edition of EP Monthly through
the following online form. We would love to share our resources and opportunities
with the growing New England EP Monthly community.

Trainings/Exercises:

After Action Report Conference for the 16 County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Functional Exercise
Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: MEMA Classroom, 45 Commerce Drive, Suite 2, Augusta ‚ Maine
Contact: Jeremy Damren (jeremy.damren@maine.gov) 207-624-4410

Maine's Elders and Emergencies: Working for the Future
Overview: "The Maine Center for Public Health, the Maine Office of Elder Services and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Maine Emergency Management Agency and the Harvard School of Public Health, Center for Public Health Preparedness (HSPH-CPHP) are pleased to present an online course intended to improve emergency preparedness planning for and among the elderly population titled: "Maine's Elders and Emergencies: Working for the Future." This course is designed for city and state officials, representatives of community-based organizations and other service providers, adult caregivers, first responders, elder adults, and any individual who wants to participate in promoting emergency preparedness for elder community needs. This course will provide you with the tools and knowledge necessary to prepare and respond to elders in an emergency. It is professionally narrated and has non-graded quizzes that will allow one to test their responses as well as printable facts and other downloadable information. We encourage you to share this online course with anyone involved in emergency preparedness or other groups/individuals who may benefit from it."

User name: Elder
Password: Elder
***Please note, the above user name and password are case-sensitive****
Certificates of completion will be sent via us mail 4-6 weeks from time of course completion.
Contact: Rubim Rwakabuba, 617-384-9696

Webcast:

Collaborative Efforts for Emergency Planning between the ADPH and Healthcare Organizations
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM (ET)
Overview: "This program will provide basic information and an opportunity to practice the knowledge, skills, & abilities needed to prepare for all-hazards healthcare planning. Topics to be discussed include: legal, ethical, & environmental issues in healthcare planning and response, current hospital response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the new criteria for a mass-casualty respiratory emergency. A one hour question & answer session will follow the presentation. Objectives: Review hospital planning & response efforts to the H1N1 influenza pandemic. Explore emergency planning tools & ADPH website resources developed for healthcare planning. Understand legal & ethical issues in healthcare planning & response. Discuss the Criteria for Mechanical Ventilator Triage Following Proclamation of Mass-Casualty Respiratory Emergency following a declaration of regional, statewide, or national public health respiratory emergency. Recognize environmental health concerns in planning & response."
Contact:  334-206-5618

 News/Resources:

Tracking the progress of H1N1 swine flu
Overview: "This map and the data behind it were compiled by Dr. Henry Niman, a biomedical researcher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using technology provided by Rhiza Labs and Google. The map is compiled using data from official sources, news reports and user-contributions and updated multiple times per day. Rhiza's web-based mapping product, Insight, is helping Dr. Niman get official and unofficial data into the tracking system faster while giving researchers and the public many options for viewing the data in a useful and understandable way."
contact: Josh Knauer at 412-488-0600

OSHA Releases Best Practices for Protecting EMS Responders During Treatment & Transport of Victims of Hazardous Substance Releases
Overview: "OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) has developed a guide for emergency medical service (EMS) responders who provide medical assistance during an incident involving a hazardous substance release. This guide discusses the measures employers need to take to protect EMS responders from becoming additional victims while on the front line of medical response."

Research:

Creation of Inpatient Capacity During a Major Hospital Relocation
Howard C. Jen; Stephen B. Shew; James B. Atkinson; J. Thomas Rosenthal; Jonathan R. Hiatt
ARCH SURG/VOL 144 (NO. 9), SEP 2009
Overview: "To identify tools to aid the creation of disaster surge capacity using a model of planned inpatient census reduction prior to relocation of a university hospital. DESIGN: Prospective analysis of hospital operations for 1-week periods beginning 2 weeks (baseline) and 1 week (transition) prior to move day; analysis of regional hospital and emergency department capacity. SETTING: Large metropolitan university teaching hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospital census figures and patient outcomes. RESULTS: Census was reduced by 36% from 537 at baseline to 345 on move day, a rate of 18 patients/d (P < .005). Census reduction was greater for surgical services than nonsurgical services (46% vs 30%; P = .02). Daily volume of elective operations also decreased significantly, while the number of emergency operations was unchanged. Hospital admissions were decreased by 42%, and the adjusted discharges per occupied bed were increased by 8% (both P < .05). Inpatient mortality was not affected. Regional capacity to absorb new patients was limited. During a period in which southern California population grew by 8.5%, acute care beds fell by 3.3%, while Los Angeles County emergency departments experienced a 13% diversion rate due to overcrowding. CONCLUSIONS: Local or regional disasters of any size can overwhelm the system's ability to respond. Our strategy produced a surge capacity of 36% without interruption of emergency department and trauma services but required 3 to 4 days for implementation, making it applicable to disasters and mass casualty events with longer lead times. These principles may aid in disaster preparedness and planning."

How to win trust over flu
NATURE, Vol 461, 8 October 2009
Overview: "Mass-vaccination campaigns for the pandemic H1N1 virus must take public concerns into account.
As countries roll out their campaigns for large-scale vaccination against pandemic H1N1 flu, a poll released last week by the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, found that only four in ten US adults have definitely decided to get vaccinated themselves, and just half plan to get the shot for their children (http://go.nature.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/wiB8V3). Harvard's results parallel those from other surveys, both inside and outside the United States, all of which suggest that many people are still dubious about the vaccine. Public-health authorities, who are keen to contain the pandemic's spread, need to realize that their best hope of dealing with such public reluctance is to patiently address the concerns that underlie it."

Conference:

3rd Annual Conference on Global Preparedness
Date: Tuesday, December 8–10, 2009
Location: Hilton Melbourne Rialto Place, 200 Rialto Place Melbourne, Florida
Overview: "At this year’s conference, you will hear speakers from public sectors and private industry, higher education, state, national and foreign governments—all presenting innovative practices and emerging technologies designed to protect and preserve national and global assets and human lives. Major topics will include emergency response, the economy, cyber-security, human factors and secure technology—raising the bar from sustainable to resilient. Presentations will show how these areas are interconnected to identify the challenges we face today as well as the potential solutions."