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States Make Major Improvements in Critical Emergency Response Preparations In Past Two Years

SURVEY SHOWS SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN COMMUNICATION, PREPARATION AND TRAINING SINCE HURRICANE KATRINA

Alexandria, VA, October xx, 2007 – Like many states that were called upon in 2005 to respond during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Tennessee public health officials say poor communication and coordination between states hurt their emergency response.

“During Katrina, we'd be expecting a plane full of people in Nashville, and we needed to know how many people would be on a flight, the type of injuries, the type of care needed, and other logistics like flight delays and schedules,” says Greg Galfano, Senior Preparedness Planner in Tennessee Department of Health’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness. “Those were the areas where we had miscommunications.”

However, from Tennessee and Alabama, to South Dakota and the Far Northwest, state public health officials today say improvements in communication and coordination between agencies, and between states, means that in the event of a major natural disaster, terrorist attack or public health emergency such as a pandemic flu epidemic, significant errors are much less likely.

That’s according to a multi-state study by Global Secure Corp., a leading provider of emergency preparedness and response systems to federal, state and local governments. Seventy-seven percent of state public health departments responding to the survey said they were “significantly” or “somewhat better” prepared to meet such emergencies.

Tennessee and a majority of the other states participating in the study said the most important initiatives they’ve taken as a result of the 2005 hurricane experience involved sweeping improvements in communications, collaboration, and coordination between all intra- and interstate rescue agencies. A failure in these efforts two years ago was one of the biggest obstacles to dealing rapidly and effectively with Hurricane Katrina, whether providing medical support, handling evacuees, or allocating resources and time.

“We are significantly better prepared because of the redundant communication capabilities we now have in place,” says LaJean Volmer of the South Dakota Department of Health.

Of equal importance, the survey found, was the need for pro-active collaborative planning. Seventy-six percent of the respondents agreed that one of the most valuable lessons learned through direct experience, and through watching the New Orleans crisis unfold, was the overriding importance of multi-agency advance planning.

“Planning in isolation does not produce a quality product” say Cindy Gleason of the Washington State Department of Health Office of Risk and Emergency Management. “Planning with other agencies puts you in a better readiness state, rather than just an awareness state. Here in Washington, the most important initiative we've taken to improve our response to large-scale incidents is increasing inter-agency coordination and cooperation. The fact is, there's no one single agency that can respond to everything.”

“We now are working with the other states in our FEMA region to define resource types,” notes Rebecca Gillis, MPH, CHES, K HELPS and Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator with the Kentucky Department of Public Health. “The public health preparedness managers in our region meet at least quarterly on this and other issues, and have been doing that for more than a year.”

As one state public health leader summed it up, “The site of a disaster is not the place to be exchanging business cards.”

“States have taken seriously the issues that became apparent during Katrina,” said Eric Shaffer, President of the Global Secure Systems division. “We have seen a lot of hard work being done at the regional, state and local levels that will make a significant difference in the public health response to the next major disaster.”

Nearly 60 percent of the state health departments surveyed said that they are now implementing regular exercises and drills that are “critical” for their first responders. Those exercises facilitate cooperation among hospitals, nursing homes, and all other healthcare facilities, as well as the coordination of food and water supplies and the mobilization of trained volunteers.

One state health department head who responded to the survey said that state is now conducting multi-agency exercises that include the rapid setting up of so-called all-purpose medical needs facilities. “We learned through Katrina the importance of collaboration with other states. Mississippi had a lot of hospitals that needed to transfer patients, and we had to coordinate the transfer of those patients into Alabama facilities,” recalls Kelly M. Stevens, M.S., Director of Planning & Liaison to Emergency Preparedness Coordinators, in the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Center for Emergency Preparedness.

“And at the local level, we had hospitals releasing patients who were ready to go home, but either didn’t have a home to go home to, or needed some specialized care not available at home post-storm, and we had to find places for them to go,” she added.

Since then, Stevens says, Alabama has improved its medical needs shelter plans and conducted exercises in which it sets up medical needs shelters. Prior to these exercises multiple agencies, acting independently, wasted valuable time and money duplicating efforts.

Another state official noted that running exercises showed that various responders had all counted on the same buses for evacuations.

Officials also emphasized the necessity of hospitals participating in these preparatory exercises and suggested that, in the future, some non-traditional players, such as a finance team to determine funding requirements, also be included.

About Global Secure Systems

Global Secure Systems provides emergency planning, response and recovery solutions. Our expertise in information and communication technology and services is currently deployed in states with a combined population of over 100 million people. Our products offer true role-based, multimedia alerting and rich document management capabilities for crisis preparedness and response, monitoring and managing volunteers and hospital capacity management. We also offer the training and exercises required for an effective response. Global Secure works for one result – to secure the homeland with integrated products and services for the critical incident response community worldwide.