Government funds available for training
With the signing of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Response Act into law June 12, a national bioterrorism surveillance network was established.
The Emergency Public Information and Communications Advisory Committee will track outbreaks of infectious diseases. The law also provides for training of ED physicians and other health care providers to recognize and treat victims of biologic agents and other weapons of mass destruction.
The legislation allocates $1.6 billion in grants to states for hospital preparedness. "I think it’s certain that this will translate into a large amount of funds for ED preparedness," says Rich Klasco, MD, chief medical officer for Greenwood Village, CO-based Micromedex, a provider of databases and integrated support tools covering drug, disease, patient education, toxicology, alternative medicine, regulatory, and chemical information, and an ED physician at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, CO.
However, he argues that you should take a proactive stance regarding funding. "Instead of just waiting to see what comes to you from the federal government legislation, have a plan in your mind for what constitutes bioterrorism preparedness in your setting," he advises.
He recommends going to hospital administrators armed with a list of needed resources. "Everyone is waiting to be handed their tool kit. We all need to make some decisions about our needs," he says.
Although specific needs will vary widely depending on your ED, Klasco says information technology is a common thread.
"With urban EDs, the necessary equipment may be there, but knowledge is the critical piece that is missing," he says. He gives the example of the anthrax attacks that caused a deluge of "worried well" patients to tax the ED’s resources. Due to lack of information about how to protect themselves, worried staff wore the highest-level personal protective equipment they had in the ED, which was not necessary, Klasco says.
"We were all wearing HEPA-filter recirculating masks. It was oppressive to work in them, and patients and co-workers could not understand you through the mask," he says.
If staff had access to information about what kind of protection actually was needed, it would have been easier to keep the ED up and running, he says.
Klasco adds that the Internet itself is a possible target in the event of a bioterrorism attack or may not be accessible due to a large volume of traffic. "When the CDC had a webcast after the anthrax exposures, I couldn’t log on due to the traffic," he recalls. "The high volume of traffic clogs the sites and makes them unavailable."
Klasco also had the experience of being in Washington, DC, immediately after the anthrax attacks. "I saw how an incident of this nature can bring us to our knees. The senators I was there to meet did not have offices, telephones, or computers," he says. "It was an absolutely chaotic situation."
The most important solution is to have a way to put needed information into the hands of first responders, he concludes. "It’s necessary to have the full spectrum of information technology available, because we don’t know where the target is going to be in our information chain," he argues.
An important piece of this spectrum is hand-held computers such as Palm devices, he says. "No matter how conscientious you may be, training happens on an intermittent basis. You need a substitute that will be there on a 24-hour basis."
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content