MRPC Stakeholder Meeting #3 Meeting Summary. March 8, 2017, 1:30 PM 3:00 PM Elks Lodge, Natick, MA. Stakeholders: See list at end of document

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MRPC Stakeholder Meeting #3 Meeting Summary March 8, 2017, 1:30 PM 3:00 PM Elks Lodge, Natick, MA Stakeholders: See list at end of document Meeting Leader: Jendy Dunlop, Cambridge Health Alliance

1 MRPC Stakeholder Meeting #3 Meeting Summary March 8, 2017, 1:30 PM 3:00 PM Elks Lodge, Natick, MA Stakeholders: See list at end of document Meeting Leader: Jendy Dunlop, Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) Facilitator: Regan Checchio, Regina Villa Associates (RVA) Notetaker: Sarah Paritsky, RVA Handouts: Agenda, Interactive Activity Worksheet, Public Health (PHEP) and Hospitals (HPP) Work Plan Briefing 2017 Joint Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), Jurisdictional Risk Assessment handout, Training Opportunities Ballot Summary: Jendy Dunlop, CHA, welcomed attendees to the meeting and thanked them for attending. She introduced herself as the HMCC Manager for Region 4AB, and said this is the third stakeholder meeting for Region 4AB. CHA Staffing Update/HMCC Priorities Ms. Dunlop said one goal of CHA s is to fully staff the HMCC. She reported that the Planning and Operations Coordinator has been hired and will start on March 20. Ms. Dunlop announced that any final budget modifications are due to CHA by March 15. CHA will review and submit all budget modifications to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MPDH) Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management (OPEM) by March 31. Ms. Dunlop shared some updates on the Executive Committee, including goals development and a communications plan for the HMCC for routine and emergency communications, an emergency coordination plan, and the MRP website which will house regional resources and trainings. Executive Committee Update Timothy McDonald, Town of Needham Public Health Director and Chair of the Executive Committee, said the members are developing mission and vision statements, goals, and objectives as part of a strategic planning process. These will be shared with stakeholders at the July meeting. Mr. McDonald added that the Executive Committee is also developing rules and processes for discipline representation.

2 Branding/Website Update Ms. Checchio said the new MRPC website ( is under development. At the November 2016 meeting, she presented the MRPC name. Since then, the Executive Committee has developed the branding, including the HMCC logo. Ms. Checchio presented the final logo and explained that that the icons represent each discipline. She said the website will include information about the MRPC, the mission and vision statements, a training calendar, and other regional resources. Statewide and Regional Training Discussion Alison Randal, Region 4C/Boston Public Health Commission Emergency Prepardeness, presented information about the statewide training series offered through the DelValle Institute (DVI). She explained that DVI is an educational institute that delivers skills based preparedness for public health and safety receivers and responders. She said DVI is funded by OPEM and the Department of Homeland Security (through the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region, MBHSR) to deliver trainings statewide. Ms. Randal said the statewide training is working through the HMCC structure with the five healthcare disciplines. The statewide training series has formed an advisory committee, and the Region 4AB representatives are Ms. Dunlop and Charlotte Roy (Newton-Wellesley Hospital). The advisory committee helps select and prioritize training topics, informs the content of courses, provides feedback on courses and how to improve them, and helps schedule courses with DVI. Ms. Randal presented the FY2017 statewide course offerings and said the advisory committee is planning for FY2018. She said she would like to collect the MRPC s feedback on what Region 4AB would like to see next year. Ms. Randal explained the funding for FY2018 is about the same as FY2017, so DVI staff will likely have the capacity to develop two new courses. Ms. Dunlop provided an overview of the Training Opportunities Ballot which asked stakeholders to rank their top three choices of new proposed courses, and suggest additional trainings to be prioritized or developed. Participants then spent about 10 minutes reviewing the ballot and ranking their choices, which were turned in at the end of the meeting. During the review, Ms. Randal responded to a question about the Local Public Health Institute through Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), which also offers trainings under a separate grant. Ms. Randal said the statewide training series does not compete and in fact coordinates regularly with BU. She added that if Region 4AB requests a course, it will be delivered within the region on a first come, first serve basis. All courses are open to statewide participants. Ms. Checchio asked participants to share their first-choice trainings. Mr. McDonald said he prioritized Building on the Operationalizing Incident Command System (ICS) Course because it can be challenging to explain to staff with important roles in the ICS structure, such as a Town Manager, why the structure is important. Declan Carbery, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, said he chose the Agro-Terrorism course because federal courses offered on that topic can be hard to attend. Ms. Randal advised stakeholders to share any questions or comments with Ms. Dunlop so she can bring them to the advisory committee meeting.

3 The results of the ballot (tabulated after the meeting) are below: Top Trainings, Weighted by Priority 1) Building on the Operationalizing ICS Course (25 points) 2) Team Building Course (13 points) 3) Disaster Planning (13 points) 4) Recovery Planning (13 points) Top Trainings, Unweighted 1) Building on the Operationalizing ICS Course (10 points) 2) Agro-Terrorism Topics (7 points) 3) Recovery Planning (7 points) Overview of FOA: Donna Quinn, MDPH OPEM, provided an overview of the Funding Opportunity Agreement (FOA) which is structured by six domains to lay out 15 Public Health (PHEP) capabilities and four Hospital (HPP) capabilities. Ms. Quinn said she shared this document at a LSAC meeting on March 6 to discuss preliminary federal budget figures, which are in continuing resolution until the end of April. Mr. McDonald, who attended the LSAC meeting, said he still wants to understand regional versus facility/organization responsibilities when money is passed down from the state. Ms. Quinn explained that for public health, draft deliverables have been presented at the coalition and community level. Draft deliverables for hospitals, HMCC, and Medical Reserve Corps (MRCs) will be shared by the end of March. She noted the base funding remains the same but the formulas may change. Mr. McDonald asked about the balance between individual community and regional/hmcc responsibilities for the next cooperative agreement. Donna said the HMCC FOA emphasizes the continued development of HMCCs and will add emergency management for this year. She encouraged stakeholders to attend meetings and stay involved in projects and drills. Mr. McDonald asked about how OPEM envisions the role of HMCCs in terms of sharing situational awareness during an emergency. Ms. Quinn said during the February winter storms, the process resulted in information load and was a little clumsy. Going forward, OPEM will clarify that the HMCC would take the lead in sharing information with OPEM. She added that OPEM often receives alerts of a situation, so if a situation arises in region 4AB, OEPM would notify HMCC staff. This process is outlined in the 24/7 emergency communications plan. Shawn Kraft, Chelsea Soldiers' Home, said that even when weather events are expected, he receives related alerts (for example, about high wind during a hurricane) in the middle of the night. He asked if the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) alerts could be pushed to normal daytime hours when emergencies are expected. Kerry Evans, MDPH OPEM, said alerts come from the National Weather Service and then MEMA pushes them out automatically. MDPH OPEM can continue to talk to

4 MEMA about the alerts. Ms. Quinn said changing preferences in the Health Action Network (HAN) can be helpful. Ms. Quinn stated that work plan templates and budget templates are coming soon; they are similar to the previous year s with some enhancements. She encouraged stakeholders to contact her with any questions. Interactive Activity: Ms. Checchio directed participants to the interactive activity worksheets and encouraged them to break into small groups of five or six people, with representation from all disciplines. Ms. Checchio said the groups should discuss the winter storms on February 9 and 12 about each stakeholder s personal experience and role to prepare for and respond to the storms. The groups reported back on their discussions of the winter storms. Highlighted conversation topics included: Transportation Snow that affects the ability of staff to travel to and from facilities creates a major problem for long-term care, hospitals, and the visiting nurses association (VNA). o The VNA may have a nurse that has to visit multiple cities and runs a shuttle to assist with staff travel. o Mt Auburn Hospital also shuttles staff from parking lots in Watertown. When a storm is expected, the hospital reaches out to patients with scheduled appointments to come in earlier in the day to allow staff to leave early. o When South Shore Hospital operates in 110% capacity, it uses ambulances to shuttle patients out of the hospital. Hospital staff also spend the night during storms. o The Chelsea Soldiers Home also has an off-site parking lot. For the recent storms, staff shared rides with Uber; this was not coordinated by the facility but it could be formalized in the future. o Shutdowns of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) affect staff at hospitals and nursing homes; MBTA service is critical. Electricity A recent power outage in Arlington required a long-term care facility to run on generator power. State of Emergency and Travel Bans If staff call in sick during a state of emergency there is no recourse. Staffing is better when there is no travel ban. o It is easier to travel during a travel ban because fewer vehicles are on the road. If there is no travel ban there is traffic and often car accidents. o Essential personnel can come to work if there is a travel ban. However, State Police may send home specialists and medical staff that are not obviously essential. o Travel bans make it difficult for VNA staff to find parking. o The Chelsea Soldiers Home issues letters each year for emergency staff to show to police. o Even essential staff can have problems when traveling to the hospital from far distances. o The MEMA Corporate Emergency Access System (CEAS) program does not work well. Mr. Carbery said the CEAS program is a lot of work and is not designed for hospitals

5 (which need lots of licenses for many staff). He suggested that MEMA should create a CEAS app. Ms. Checchio referred participants to the third page of the handout which included questions about information sharing and communications protocols for their organizations/disciplines. This material was collected at the end of the meeting to be collated by CHA staff. Next Steps: Ms. Checchio said the next meeting will take place in July 2017 and closed the meeting. Stakeholders in Attendance: Beverly Anderson, Sharon Health Department Ben Ashton Lisa Bruning, VNA Eastern MA *Declan Carbery, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton Kelli Calo, Hudson Health Department Robin Chapell, Town of Walpole *Derrick Congdon, Metropolitan Boston EMS *Joan Cooper-Zack, South Shore Hospital Dierdre Damiano, City of Revere Department of Public Health Nick Duncan, Region 4C HMCC Steven Ellsweig, Cadbury Commons Kerry Evans, MDPH OPEM *Valerie Gingras, Carleton-Willard Village Elizabeth Grella, Newton Health and Human Services Dept Karen Host Archana Joshi, MDPH OPEM *Paula Kaminow, Edward M. Kennedy CHC *Shawn Kraft, Chelsea Soldiers Home *Ron Knight, Winchester Hospital Chris Laporte, Fallon Ambulance Mark Letzeisen, Mount Auburn Hospital Susan Lumenello, Burlington Board of Health Kitty Mahoney, Town of Framingham John Mangino, Lahey Hospital *Timothy McDonald, Town of Needham Paula McHatton, Chelsea Health Department Lisa Moulton, MRC VC Coordinator Donna Quinn, MDPH OPEM Alison Randall, Region 4C HMCC Frank Rigolini Andrew Scheele, City of Quincy Cheryl Anne Snyder, Brookline Health Department Barbara Thissell, Public Health *Jim White, Town of Natick *Member of Executive Committee

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