Welcome to Bluffton Regional Medical Center

Emergency Operations Plan - Resource & Asset Management

OBTAINING & REPLENISHING MEDICAL & NON-MEDICAL SUPPLIES
The amounts, locations, processes for obtaining and replenishing of medical and non-medical pharmaceutical supplies, including personal protective equipment, will be established before an event.  The process will need to go from mitigation to recovery stages.  Medical supplies would include anything used in the care of patients.  Non-medical supplies would include food, linen, water, fuel, and transportation vehicles.

Bluffton Regional Medical Center will obtain and replenish medications and related supplies, non-medical supplies and personal protective equipment by accessing our stores of emergency preparedness equipment and notification to local LHN facilities for additional resources.

For those items that usage would exceed par levels as a result of a large scale incident or times that would expire (e. g., additional antibiotics, vaccines, PPE), a Mutual Aid Agreement has been developed to expedite receipt of items when needed.  The policy MOU Agreement references the agreement with the other healthcare organizations on response of assets (NIMS Element 15).

The amounts and locations of current supplies will need to be evaluated to determine how many hours the facility can sustain before replenishing.  This will give the facility a par level on supplies and aid in the projection of sustainability before terminating services or evacuating if supplies are unable to get to the facility.  The inventory of assets and resources that were discussed earlier in SECTION: Program Management is the starting point of par levels.

The processes for obtaining and replenishing those supplies once the par level has decreased will need to be identified.  This would include a list of the vendors and contractors that deliver and manufacture the supplies.  Most facilities have just-in-time delivery of supplies.  A stockpile within the company or corporation, stockpile with the local vendor, prepayment of supplies to be used in times of emergency, or regional purchase of supplies to be stockpiled in a warehouse are some ways of obtaining and replenishing supplies.  The disadvantage of these methods is the idea that one vendor would have enough for all hospitals within the region to deliver, but the supplies are not checked often for expiration or not located in a controlled environment, or the local, county, or state resources would pull that stockpile before hospitals could access the supplies for field use.  It is ideal to have other vendors outside of regional and state areas also available for delivery of supplies.  A disadvantage to supplies offsite would be a natural disaster where delivery of supplies would not be possible.

The importance of how many hours of sustainability on supplies is crucial to determine if services can still be rendered during a disaster.  The planning of the sustainability of Bluffton Regional Medical Center, without the support of the community within the first 96 hours, should be a coordinated effort of the Emergency Management Committee and the departments over the six critical areas before a disaster has occurred.  Where supplies and alternative means are required to sustain 96 hours, resources and assets, alternative sources, and the sustainability at that point must be identified.  If near or around 96 hours cannot be sustained, policies and procedures must be in place on the response that the facility may conceivably evacuate or temporarily close.  The Form II: Inventory of Assets has identified those resources and assets and the sustainability indicated in hours.

MANAGING STAFF SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
During activations of the EOP, various modifications and accommodations are made for hospital staff to assist them in coming to the hospital to provide needed services. The following accommodations are authorized:

1.Where travel is difficult or impossible because of weather conditions, the hospital works with groups with appropriate vehicles to assist staff in getting to and from the hospital.

2.Where necessary because of conditions, the hospital accommodates staff that need to sleep, eat, and/or other services in order to be at the hospital to provide needed services.

3.The Logistics Chief with the Service Branch Staff Food and Water Leader handles the needs of staff during the emergency.  The Logistics Chief is authorized to modify the normal use of hospital space, fitness center or gymnasiums, and/or to work with local hotels and motels to provide accommodations for staff. Meal service for staff is authorized where approved by the Logistics Chief.

4.The hospital will be prepared for incident stress debriefings. These areas will be staffed by hospital staff, staff from community mental health services, clergy, and others trained in incident stress debriefing. As part of planning for mass casualty and similar incidents, staffing and alternatives will be identified and contacted to determine facilities and processes to be used.

5.Communication to staff family members will also be arranged through the Staff Food and Water Leader.

MANAGING STAFF FAMILY SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
During activations of the EOP, various accommodations may be made for staff's families to assist staff availability for providing their services. These include:

1.Family accommodations are made available in those unusual situations where entire families must come to enable staff to be present for emergency services coverage. These will normally be arranged prior to families arriving at the hospital.

2.The staff that needs accommodation(s) for their dependent(s), such as a child or adult, will give this information to their recall caller.  The caller will then notify the Staff Food and Water Leader that accommodations will need to be established.  A daycare center will be established if needed.  The location of the day care center will be designated by the CEO or Incident Commander at the time of the need.  The staff member will need to bring the following items:

Staff member will need the following items:

ID badge/name tag

Prescriptions

Change of clothes (for everyone)

Toiletries

The staff dependent adult/child will need the following items:

All prescriptions in their original containers

Immunization Records (under 4 yrs) if available

Emergency contact other than parent

Diapers, if applicable

Baby food & bottles

Child's/Adult's favorite item

1.The staff that needs accommodation(s) for their pets will give this information to their recall caller. The caller will then notify the Staff Food and Water Leader that accommodations will need to be established. A local kennel, veterinarian, or shelter can be established to accept the animal(s) for the staff member. Phone numbers for the local kennel or shelters are listed below:

Local Kennel or Shelters

Will be listed

2.The staff member will need to bring the following items for the animal:

ID tag

Shot records

Favorite bedding, toy, etc.

Food & any prescriptions

1.Location of the Staff Family Support Center
An employee, who reports for assignment with immediate family in attendance, shall be appropriately identified and family members shall be assisted to the designated location to be housed during their family employee's disaster assignment.

SHARING OF RESOURCES
The process of sharing resources with other healthcare organizations outside of the community during a regional event would go through the Regional Hospital Command Center (RHCC) and/or the county EOC. Those resources will be tracked by the system system created by the state, county, or RHCC. The community EOC will be responsible for delivery of the needed resources.

Involvement of the Community
A multi-agency coordination system (MAC) has been put into place and involves the hospitals, public health, Fire department, emergency management office, etc. A MAC is a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications integrated into a common system with responsibility for coordinating and supporting incident management activities. The primary function of the MAC is to:

Support incident management policies & priorities

Facilitate logistics support & resource tracking

Provide information regarding resource allocation decisions to incident management personnel in concert with incident management priorities

Coordinate incident-related information

Coordinate interagency & intergovernmental issues regarding incident management policies, priorities, & strategies.

Prior to an incident, the potential emergency needs and areas of priority will be defined:

Personnel staffing, roles & authority

Decontamination of patients, personnel and/or equipment

Equipment & supplies

Security

Ancillary services

The Emergency Program manager will attend the meetings with the Community MAC and maintain those relationships established with the other healthcare organizations.  The MAC will be updated as needed post-event or exercise.  (NIMS Element 3)

EVACUATION ACTIVITIES (See ERP: Evacuation and Alternate Care Site)

1.An evacuation of the hospital for a situation which renders the facility no longer capable of providing the necessary patient care will be directed by the Incident Commander.  The evacuation will be handled in cooperation with local Police or Fire and/or local EOC.

2.The local Police or Fire and/or the EOC will be notified as soon as the potential for evacuation is considered and will be kept updated on an ongoing basis in order to begin the process for identification of the availability of vehicles to relocate the patients.

3.Transporting patients, their medications, equipment, staff, and pertinent information to alternate care sites when the environment cannot support care, treatment and services is managed through the Transportation Unit Leader.

US Patent Numbers 7,720,998 B2, 7,836,207