Emergency preparedness initiative launched in GA
Resources to be listed on-line
An emergency preparedness platform that will allow hospitals throughout the state to communicate in the event of a disaster or public emergency is being launched by the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH).
The purchase of the platform — funded by a grant from the DPH — makes Georgia the first state in the country to have standardized emergency software for all of its more than 150 acute care hospitals, says Kevin Bloye, vice president of public relations for GHA.
"The platform is going to allow our acute care facilities to list their resources that are available during a disaster," Bloye adds. "Every member can go on, see every other hospital in the state, and see where they can transfer patients and where they can't."
The system, a product of Madison, NJ-based LiveProcess, features an on-line bulletin board where people can communicate in real-time, as well as a module that provides drill scenarios, he says. "It opens up the avenue for hospitals to communicate not only among each other but with the DPH and other state agencies."
Emergency preparedness has been a top priority issue in Georgia for the past three years, says Bloye.
"We've been fortunate enough to avoid the real disastrous hurricanes, but we did have a big scare about four years ago in which most of Savannah was evacuated," he adds. "It was an eye-opener for us in that [agencies and hospitals] had trouble communicating with each other and determining what resources were available. We were not as organized as we would have liked."
At that point, the GHA began working on an emergency preparedness plan, Bloye says. "The hurricanes over the last couple of years, and this last summer, underscored the fact that we needed to take a leadership role [to ensure that] hospitals can respond appropriately. It could happen here, and we want to be ready."
Updates, HIM integration cited
At Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart, FL, which was hit by hurricanes Francis and Jeanne in 2004 and by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005, Carol Plato, CPAM, CMPA, director of corporate business services, has been seeking information about web-based systems for monitoring bed availability and transferring patients to other facilities during such emergencies.
What she found is that "the technology is there and probably available to everyone, but it seems like there would be staffing needs — someone to sit there and update it," Plato says. "What would have to happen, the way we envision it, is that someone [at each hospital] would have to be very religious about putting the numbers in every day at a certain time."
Her concern, she adds, is that if someone has to stop what he or she is doing and input the information, it won't happen. One hospital manager on a listserv Plato was visiting "said nobody was using [the system in that state]. If you have to do it manually, some people won't do it, and if it's not done consistently, what's the point?"
Plato's conclusion, she notes, is "if [the system] is not integrated with the hospital's health information management [HIM] system and automatically updates, it's not worth it."
Assuming that can be worked out — in the same way that hospitals automatically communicate health care statistics each night, Plato says that the "issue is, 'Who is going to be the gatekeeper?'"
A concern would be if one hospital company — say, HCA Inc., which has a large presence in the South — oversaw the system and only those hospitals participated, she says. "You'd need to get away from [limiting it to categories such as] non-profits, privates or religious [facilities]."
The state hospital association would be a logical choice to oversee the process, she says, "but not every hospital belongs."
While Bloye agrees that the emergency preparedness software is only as good as its users, he points out that a strong staff support system is already in place for Georgia's new platform.
"One person in all of our member hospitals is assigned to be an emergency preparedness coordinator," he says. "It is their job to update the LiveProcess site."
While the coordinators are employees of the individual hospitals and — except at the larger facilities — have other job responsibilities, Bloye says, they are "a very tight group and take this job pretty seriously."
These employees previously were charged with manning an earlier emergency web site, he adds. "During Hurricane Katrina, they were asked to get on that site and update their bed inventory and other resources. If they are as dedicated to [the new LiveProcess system] as they have been to other mechanisms, we feel it will be a huge success."
Platform aids financial recovery
The focus of the LiveProcess platform is not only to prepare for emergencies, but to facilitate financial recovery, says company CEO Nathaniel Weiss. "We help hospitals through all of the phases, prior and post-disaster."
In addition to assisting with patient transfer and tracking, LiveProcess assists with reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other government agencies, he says. "All is thrown into disarray in an emergency. The way we help is that we provide a framework for [the necessary] communication and a way to document every aspect of that."
When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida a number of years ago, Weiss recalls, many affected facilities were told by FEMA to go ahead and spend money on certain resources — extra oxygen, stretchers, etc. — and they would be reimbursed. However, when the facilities sought reimbursement, he says, they were told they needed documentation, and that the information had to be provided by a certain date.
Many had not done the necessary tracking, and so were unable to meet those requirements, Weiss adds. "You need a clear document track to be able to do that."
The platform also helps with the regional interoperability and dependency that often is part of a disaster response, he notes. When, for example, a chemical spill occurred in southeast Georgia, overwhelming the resources of a small nearby hospital, Weiss says, the facility called on a regional medical center located in Savannah.
"The larger hospital tried to coordinate the response, to get the vendors they needed, but the real difficulty was they didn't know how much money they could spend on behalf of the smaller facility," he adds. "This also implicates the hospital's insurance. There are policies that reach a certain level and then defer to other reimbursers."
With the LiveProcess standardized format, officials at the larger hospital would be able to, for example, pull up a screen and immediately see who the financial officer is at the smaller facility and communicate directly on such issues, Weiss says. "This is a tool to facilitate communication, planning, and response, and it's very transparent. While you're doing your job, everything is being archived and documented."
With insurers "carving out different areas of impact or threat and creating terrorism-specific riders," this kind of documentation becomes increasingly important, he points out. "Many insurers are enhancing policies to be much more specific about what is covered in the event of a hurricane. It's also fascinating that many are starting to go into a hospital and require that they be able to see the facility's emergency management plan — how it's put together."
Being able to ensure consistency across a state's hospitals is also important, Weiss adds. "The way most hospitals do emergency planning, there are 200 hospitals and 200 different plans and formats. There is a lack of quality and standardization. This offers a way to dramatically improve that."
An emergency preparedness platform that will allow hospitals throughout the state to communicate in the event of a disaster or public emergency is being launched by the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) ...You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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