Hospitals play a key role in emergency readiness throughout Kansas. As vital community resources, hospitals must be among the best prepared, alongside police, fire, rescue, and other public safety services.
Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program
KHERF administers the Individual Hospital Grants and Regional Planning Hospitals subsidies. In partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, KHERF assists with the planning of the National Hospital Preparedness Program. Every hospital is eligible to apply for the Individual Hospital Grant funds, for more information on Hospital Grants and Regional Planning, click
here.
Joplin Tornado
Resources and updates for Kansas hospitals.
Friday, May 27 Update; President's Perspective on May 27; Friday, May 27 Newsletter Article; Wednesday, May 25 Update; Monday, May 23 Update; Missouri Mutual Aid Agreement; Executive Order May 2011.
Kansas Health Institute's Scarce Resources Project
A recording of the June 1 Webinar entitled Scare Resources is now available to be downloaded. To access this Webinar, download the zip file to your desktop. Once the entire contents of the zip file have been extracted, click on the file "default.html. The presentation will load for you. You may have to allow "active x controls" in order for the files to play correctly.
H1N1 Flu (swine flu)
KDHE has developed flyers to help the general public distinguish between H1N1 and seasonal flu - H1N1: A New Kind of Flu, also in Spanish: H1N1 a New Kind of Flu. Brochure: Seasonal and H1N1 Flu: When to Seek Care. Click here to view a graphic of the percentage of patients with Influenza-like illnesses. In order to monitor H1N1 influenza's impact within Kansas, hospitals are asked to submit data to KDHE via the EMSystems H1N1 Surveillance Form.
Standardized Overhead/Emergency Codes
Lessons learned from recent disasters show that the resources and talent of our health care system may have to be shared, and staff could potentially be sent to other communities and regions of the nation. As these people move from facility to facility, codes that trigger emergency protective and response steps should be standardized to help insure quick action. Our goal is to have standardized overhead/emergency codes in all Kansas community hospitals no later than January 1, 2010. For more information, Contact Dan Leong. A toolkit is available, and the following resources also can be customized:
Emergency Preparedness Links
KHA has prepared Mutual Aid Agreements for Kansas hospitals. Kansas community hospitals and many other health care facilities have signed statewide Mutual Aid Agreements.
Web-based Resources
- The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) - www.ksprepared.org
- EMResource/EMSystem - www.emsystem.com
- The American Hospital Association (AHA) - Special "Disaster Readiness" section includes statements, advisories, talking points, articles and other related links - http://www.aha.org/
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - for resources on public health emergency preparedness - www.ahrq.gov/prep/
- The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology - Bioterrorism resources, including readiness plans, checklists and agent fact sheets - http://www.apic.org/
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Public health emergency preparedness, responses, related materials and announcements - http://www.cdc.gov/
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - Emergency planning resources and disaster news - www.fema.gov
- Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies - Bioterrorism preparedness and response information; BT agent background information and diagnostic criteria and treatment guidelines - http://hopkins-biodefense.org/%20Bioterrorism
- The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Health Alert Network - Resources and links regarding KDHE's bioterrorism planning and response efforts - www.kdhe.state.ks.us
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) - Information on the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), Counter Terrorism Program, agency contacts and related links - http://www.oep-ndms.dhhs.gov/
- The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) - Questions and Answers about anthrax prevention and treatment - http://www.os.dhhs.gov/
- The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) - Articles by the "Working Group on Civilian Biodefense" addressing anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulinum toxin and tularemia - www.jama.ama-assn.org
Questions regarding emergency preparedness issues can be addressed to Dan Leong at dleong@kha-net.org, or by calling the KHA office at
(785) 233-7436.