Medical Reserve Corps Contra Costa County

Transcription

1 MRC Members Fe Montesclaros-Fumar and Duncan Seibert College Park High School Medical Reserve Corps Contra Costa County CCCMRC helps to train over 3,000 Mt. Diablo School District students in CPR This spring, 3,000 9 th graders in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District were trained to do Hands Only TM CPR, use an AED, and how to relieve a foreign body obstruction, using CPR Anytime kits donated by the Mt. Diablo Health Care District. Pam Dodson, HeartSafe Program Coordinator for Contra Costa EMS extends the following thanks to the 18 MRC volunteers, some of whom attended more than one event: Thank you to those who helped facilitate these trainings we could not have done it without you. Everyone can be a lifesaving rescuer for a cardiac arrest victim, but often people don t step forward. Bystander CPR significantly increases survival rate, and reaching our goal of having 3,000 9 th graders being prepared to step up and do CPR well, we ve taken a huge step toward a change in the culture of normal bystander reaction to witnessing a cardiac arrest. Summer 2011 Upcoming Events July 23rd-Orientation & Basic Training* / 9-11:30am-Contra Costa Fire Aug 9th-West County Shelter Exercise September 24th / 10-2pm-Del Norte BART Station *New members need only attend once Check cchealth.org/mrc for more information For more information on the HeartSafe Program see cccems.org STEVE HUCK, EMT Meet Steve, yet another of our extraordinary MRC volunteers. Steve has been fortunate enough to enjoy several career paths. He spent time in the Air Force as a crew chief, working fighter-bombers. He taught sociology to college students for several years in upstate New York; maintained a gentleman farm, raising sheep, rabbits, and bull calves; and managed a home repair business. Most recently, he took a phlebotomy course. But, he says no bucket list would be complete without spending a year as an elephant trainer! STEVE & VALERIE According to Steve, oddly enough, the Medical Reserve Corps and elephant training require similar skills. In both cases, you continuously assess the current environmental risks; evaluate the resources at hand; execute an intervention to resolve the problem, reassess and re-evaluate not to mention the primary health and safety goals central to both! Steve s philosophy is that life being what it is, there will eventually be a challenge the only real difference is the size of the elephant in the room. Sometimes it is Valerie, a 7,500-pound African elephant. Sometimes it is an earthquake followed by a cholera epidemic. Regardless, Steve always finds it more rewarding to be on the solution side of the equation and is currently wondering if a trip to Haiti in the near future might be worthwhile. Page 1

2 A message from Dr. Neil Jayasekera CCC MRC Team Leader I had the pleasure of attending the Integrated Medical & Public Health, Preparedness and Response Training Summit (ITS) May 1st-5th in Grapevine Texas. The highlight of the trip was attending meetings and brainstorming with fellow Contra Costa MRC member attendees Shielah Zarate (see Sheilah s comments on the event below) and Marcelle Indelicato. In this disaster medical conference of about 2,000 people, 600 were MRC members from all over the country. We found that we have a lot to proud of with our young Contra Costa MRC unit. Many MRCs ask their volunteers to cover the expense of background checks. In Contra Costa, our Sheriff's Department provides that service for those non-medically licensed volunteers. For those holding professional medical licenses, we use the professional license validation service offered by the Disaster Healthcare Volunteer statewide registry which validates over 40 medical licenses multiple times per day. Many groups hold fund raisers to raise money to purchase insurance for their volunteers. In time of an emergency, MRC members in Contra Costa County will have their malpractice as well as liability coverage provided by the county. We are also far along in our plans to develop a disaster pharmaceutical cache (acquired and stored at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center), acquire disaster medical supplies including a medical field treatment unit as well as a trailer to transport needed equipment and supplies. We are also working with Contra Costa Public Health and American Red Cross to determine what is needed in order to provide medical care in or near a shelter during a disaster. Exciting times! If you have any questions, suggestions or just want to say hi, please contact me at njayasekera@hsd.cccounty.us. Best wishes, Neil Jayasekera, MD Hi all, I'd like to also mention that the Summit was a great training ground where Disaster Health Service Workers came together to hear what other States were doing for preparedness. We learned how to improve our planning from others lessons learned, and that the safety of responders was a main priority. The focus was on an integrated response with our partners in the community, state, and nation. There seemed to be an increasing interest in international response as well, but limited due to funding. The keynote speakers emphasized the 4 "R's" in disaster response - Resiliency, Readiness, Roles & Responsibilities, and Resources. In addition, interoperable communications and all hazards preparedness must be included in all planning. In the end, I was most inspired by the gratitude and appreciation of DHHS to its volunteers. Captain Rob Tosatto, Director of MRC, and his crew were all present to show their admiration of our volunteerism. Even Surgeon General Regina Benjamin spoke to us about her perseverance in her role and her goals for the country. Overall, the ITS Training was a wonderful gathering of volunteers in Disaster Response. I'd highly recommend attending future summits. Regards, Sheilah Zarate, RN, PHN Contra Costa Public Health Marcelle Indelicato, Dr. Jayasekera, Captain Tosatto & Sheilah Zarate, RN Page 2

3 Medical Reserve Corps Supports Public Health Efforts In recent months, Contra Costa Public Health enlisted the help of MRC members during H1N1 and seasonal flu mass vaccination clinics. In addition to serving as patient screeners and vaccinators, MRC members also staffed first aid stations at these events. Without exception, MRC members offered exemplary assistance to County Public Health staff as well as to community residents. Their professionalism and skills aided at the many H1N1 Points of Dispensing (PODS) set up during that pandemic. Contra Costa Public Health has come to rely upon MRC volunteers to support our efforts during a health emergency or public health surge event. We look forward to the continued participation of MRC volunteers in our upcoming Tdap vaccination clinics to be held this summer. As you may be aware, a new California law requires that students, grades 7 12, be vaccinated against pertussis (whooping cough) before entering school in the fall Prior to the start of the new school year, Public Health will be conducting several large vaccination clinics to help unvaccinated youth meet this new requirement. Public Health wants all MRC Volunteers to know that their services are valuable and much appreciated; and their enthusiasm is contagious! Please let us know if you are interested in participating in any of these sections: Operations (or its subsection of training), Logistics, Planning or Administration. Give Barbara Center or Juleine Latteri a call at (925) or them at bcenter@hsd.cccounty.us or jlatteri@hsd.cccounty.us. When the call comes to deploy, let s be ready! Page 3 Visit the MRC page at cchealth.org/mrc To find out more about the MRC, contact Barbara Center or Juleine Latteri bcenter@hsd.cccounty.us or jlatteri@hsd.cccounty.us or

4 REPORT FROM OPERATIONS SECTION We are off to a great start in 2011! The sky is the limit! Here are some of the things happening in Operations. Shelter Operations We are planning, training and exercising with the American Red Cross in shelter operations. By the June 2 nd Shelter Exercise in Walnut Creek we will have 19 MRC members trained to operate in the Medical Section of a Red Cross Level III Shelter, that is, a shelter where patients are able to meet their own needs or have reliable caretakers to assist with personal and/or medical care. The ultimate goal is build a significant core group of people who have taken the Red Cross training, and who have had the opportunity to participate in a shelter exercise, so we will have a cadre of people ready to fulfill this mission. Medical Needs Shelter We are participating in the drafting and review of a Medical Needs Shelter (MNS) plan with Contra Costa Health Services and other allied agencies. It is anticipated that MRC members may someday help staff Level II Shelter together with Public Health and Red Cross Personnel and those discussions and planning are continuing with Public Health. Level II Shelters include patients who have no acute medical conditions but require medical monitoring, treatment of personal care beyond what is available in public shelters. We will have future trainings and exercises using our newly-purchased equipment to be ready to fulfill this mission. County wide Shelter Exercise August We may participate in a countywide shelter training in the East Bay in August, so stay tuned for more on this in the next newsletter. Operations Section Meeting Planned We are planning on scheduling an Operations Section meeting late in June open to all to discuss our potential range of missions and the procedures on how we might accomplish them. It will likely be early on a Saturday morning, no longer than an hour and a half. If you have any questions about the Operations Section please call me at or me at rbrowncccmrc@aol.com. Operations Section Chief Richard Brown The mission of the CCC MRC is to improve the health and safety of community by training, organizing and utilizing public health, medical and other non-medical volunteers to assist in or augment medical care during disasters, major disease outbreaks or community events. The CCC MRC is a community-based network of volunteers intended to assist medical and health efforts in times of special need or disaster. Volunteers are brought together to augment existing local emergency plans and resources. Members of the CCC MRC may also volunteer their time throughout the year in order to promote community public health and education. Page 4

5 REPORT FROM ADMINISTRATIVE/FINANCE SECTION Reminders to all MRC volunteers to periodically go back into the Disaster Healthcare Volunteers (DHV) registry (healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov) to update any information that might have changed e.g. driver's license or professional license renewal dates, contact information either or phone, cell etc. (especially as this is how we reach you day-to-day!), emergency contacts and so on. Also, remember to occasionally check our webpage, cchealth.org/mrc for news about upcoming events. Do you know of someone who might be interested in joining MRC? Please share my contact information and I'd be happy to provide information and news about upcoming Orientation and Basic trainings. We are always interested in recruiting individuals with interest in volunteering including those with expertise in certain areas such as pediatrics, geriatrics, obstetrics, mental health, emergency care just to name a few specialties. Remember, there is no obligation to volunteer for any of the day-to-day activities that we inform you of but we are always attempting to 'gear up' for the Big One. We are currently at 204 volunteers but realize that in a large-scale disaster event, many of you will be committed to your regular jobs and therefore, we need to scale up to provide a measure of volunteers to the County that can be available at the time. In a disaster, our missions would be assigned by the County Emergency Operations Center, tasked to the Health Services Operations Center and then assigned to the Medical Reserve Corps. As a resource to the County, we are acquiring equipment (including a pharmaceutical cache to treat up to 1,000 patients!). Stay tuned for more on potential activities this fall including pertussis vaccine clinics - for school-aged children. MRC Project Coordinator Barbara Center NOTE: Future editions of this newsletter will include reports from all section chiefs. Cut me out! Useful CCCMRC information to keep handy! Contra Costa County Medical Reserve Corps MRC Hotline: call this listen-only line to get the latest on activation status Reminder: wear your MRC badge to all events Disaster Healthcare Volunteers (DHV) website: www. healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov user name: password: CCC Medical Reserve Corps: For a vivid firsthand experience of the devastating May 22nd tornado in Joplin, MO, go to blog/2011/05/happened-hospital-joplinmo-tornado.html to read What happened inside the hospital during the Joplin, MO tornado, by Kevin J. Kitka, DO Page 5

6 URBAN SHIELD what it is and why you should participate! Urban Shield demonstrates the Bay Area region s ability to manage numerous on-going critical incidents through the use of multiple incident commands. The critical incidents take place in a variety of venues over an extended period of time. The exercise requires full implementation of the components of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS). An Incident Command System (ICS) structure, with four Area Commands and a Department Operations Center (DOC), was implemented to manage this extremely large exercise. Urban Shield 2011 will enable regional first responders to exercise their core competencies through scenariobased training. Regional multi-agency, multi-disciplinary training exercises should continue to be offered to the Bay Area region s first responders. These exercises provide opportunities to enhance response efforts and identify training needs in a simulated environment. Future exercises should focus on multi-discipline integration of first responders to improve working relationships and protocols in order to further develop the Bay Area region s capability to successfully respond to incidents related to homeland security. The Bay Area UASI Region continues to conduct multi-agency, multi-discipline training exercises. These joint training exercises would provide first responders with the opportunity to enhance their understanding of multi-discipline response operations, roles and responsibilities, coordination, and gain valuable experience. Conducting full-scale regional exercises strengthens our preparedness and abilities to prevent and disrupt terrorist attacks, protect the citizens of the Bay Area, its critical infrastructures and key resources. This exercise is a critical component for the Bay Area s mission for homeland security. The Bay Area is striving to be a secure, prepared and resilient region consistently developing regional capabilities based on risk through collaboration and coordination that build and maintain this vision. Info and pictures can be found at We will be working with Fremont and Marin Medical Reserve Corps to staff the medical checkpoints. These are the places where teams need to have vitals taken, and hydration assessed. We will also manage any illness or injury-related issues throughout the event. There are also lots of opportunity for non medical people or those who would like to take part in the scenarios as participants: crowds, hostages, even bad guys! This year s exercise will be October On Friday, October 14th we'll also need a lot of people for medical check-in. It's an amazing event hope you can make it! CCCMRC Volunteer Sandra Sam Bradley Page 6 PLEASE update your profile in the Disaster Healthcare Volunteer registry especially your contact information including your address. It's how we get a hold of you but we're getting a lot of bounce backs.