Health Department trains for health emergency

Nevada Daily Mail

Members of the Vernon County Health Department, emergency management and county commission went through an exercise Tuesday on how to respond if a medical emergency struck the county.

Participants received a scenario of a high school basketball team infected by what ended up being a bioterrorism attack of small pox. As the representatives of the departments received the scenario in stages, they had to share how they would address the situation as it developed over several days.

While the exercise was an exaggeration of a medical emergency likely to strike Vernon County, it raised several questions in a season when Ebola has caused medical facilities across the country to consider their plans in a crisis.

Dave Bagge of the State Emergency Management Agency led the exercise, saying his goal was to let the health department know what they can do better in the next four years in preparing for a medical crisis.

As they worked their way through the exercise, dividing into emergency management and health department teams, the participants addressed issues such as prioritizing who would receive immunizations first if vaccine supplies were limited, how to delegate responsibilities and use resources, when to request a quarantine, how to keep the public informed, and other details the health department had not yet included in their plan for an emergency. Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord also asked if they had any communication with similar departments on the other side of the Kansas state line if either state needed mutual aid.

"This situation is going to make you have to decide things," Bagge told the health department representatives said of the exercise.

Health Department Administrator Beth Swopes said she does not fear making those decisions.

"I'd rather make a mistake than sit and do nothing," Swopes said.

The exercise gave them an opportunity to think through issues that would arise in an emergency and think of improvements for the plan already in existence in order to avoid any mistakes, while also keeping the plan flexible enough so they will not be prevented from acting.

"Every little thing you have pre-established takes away the stress during it," said Denise Russell, regional coordinator for SEMA.

The Centers of Disease Control asks health departments to develop 15 capabilities such as community preparedness, information sharing, fatality management and volunteer management among others.

The Vernon County departments looked at issues related to capabilities concerning emergency operations coordination and emergency public information and warning.

Through the exercise, the participants decided they would look into keeping the public informed through the emergency management department's social media sites and by using regional telephone hotlines in the midst of an emergency. They also began researching what power the health department holds in deciding when to put a quarantine in place or close a school.

The SEMA representatives gave advice to the exercise participants but also praised their efforts and cooperation between departments.

"You have some very strong capabilities and strong relationships," Russell said of that interaction between the health department and the emergency management agency.