05.06.2014 Views

Pandemic Influenza Plan - Questar III

Pandemic Influenza Plan - Questar III

Pandemic Influenza Plan - Questar III

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Section 3: Healthcare <strong>Plan</strong>ning and Emergency Response<br />

• Number of patients and/or waiting time in the ED<br />

• Number of admitted patients waiting for inpatient beds (in ED or<br />

elsewhere)<br />

• Number of hospitals on ED diversion<br />

• Morgue capacity<br />

• Shortages of medical supplies or equipment<br />

3. Activation<br />

HERDS may be activated by personnel from one of three different entities:<br />

• LHDs,<br />

• Regional Offices of the New York State Department of Health, or<br />

• Central Office of NYSDOH.<br />

The level at which the system is activated and administered will be dependent<br />

upon the nature and scope of the incident.<br />

4. Requirements<br />

To perform any administrative function within HERDS, state or local health<br />

department staff must have an active NYSDOH Commerce account and must also<br />

be assigned to at least one of the roles in the NYSDOH Commerce<br />

Communications Directory that grants access to HERDS.<br />

The value of HERDS is highly dependent upon hospital cooperation. Hospitals<br />

must ensure that:<br />

• an adequate number of staff members are trained in HERDS across all<br />

shifts;<br />

• HERDS is integrated with the hospital ICS structure;<br />

• internal systems are created in the hospital to facilitate timely and accurate<br />

channeling of information to HERDS data reporters;<br />

• all resource needs and surpluses are accurately entered into HERDS<br />

• computers with internet access should also be available in areas where<br />

emergency generator power supply is available in the event of power<br />

failures;<br />

• as a backup to high speed internet access lines, at least one account with a<br />

phone dial-up or wireless cellular internet provider is maintained as an<br />

alternative means of accessing HERDS under conditions of communications<br />

infrastructure failure.<br />

Drills will be conducted by the NYSDOH to test hospital HERDS readiness.<br />

IV.<br />

Non-Hospital Healthcare <strong>Plan</strong>ning during the Interpandemic and<br />

<strong>Pandemic</strong> Alert Period<br />

The inclusion of non-hospital healthcare partners including nursing homes, homecare,<br />

adult care facilities and primary care health centers in pandemic planning is critical to the<br />

successful management of a pandemic situation. This planning should focus on<br />

February 7, 2006 3-14

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!