Emergency Preparedness
Being Prepared for CBRN (Chemical, Biological, and Radiological/Nuclear) Emergencies
In 2004, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care launched Operation Health Protection, a three-year action plan to revitalize public health and strengthen Ontario's capacity to respond to health emergencies. This included a $13.5 million initiative targeted to 176 hospitals to enhance their ability to respond to chemical, biological, and radiological/nuclear (CBRN) emergencies. The main goal of this initiative was to bring all participating hospitals providing emergency/urgent care to a standardized level of emergency preparedness.
Community emergencies, such as factory explosions, accidents with transport trucks or trains and other chemical disasters, involve a wide range of agencies, including Emergency Medical Services, Fire Departments, Police and others who are first responders. Hospitals such as the Niagara Health System are considered first receivers, not first responders. Of Niagara Health's seven sites, the six providing urgent/emergency care are considered first receivers, including Douglas Memorial Hospital Site in Fort Erie, Greater Niagara General Site in Niagara Falls, Ontario Street Site and St Catharines General Site in St. Catharines, Port Colborne General Site and Welland Hospital Site. Because Niagara-on-the-Lake Hospital Site does not provide emergency/urgent care, it is not part of the initiative, with coverage for this community provided by Greater Niagara and/or St. Catharines hospitals.
In the event of a community emergency affecting hospitals, the NHS has in place regional and local command centres which utilize an Incident Management System to co-ordinate communications, define roles, responsibilities and operating procedures during an emergency. This system provides an organized effective response to an emergency incident and is flexible enough to be scaled up or down, depending on the size of incident. This is tied into the local, regional, provincial and federal agencies, government non-profit agencies and the private sector.
To strengthen hospital emergency preparedness, funding has been used to provide hospitals with:
- Education/Training – training and exercises to generate awareness and build expertise amongst all members of the health-care team regarding CBRN preparedness and response.
- Physical Resources – supplies and equipment to allow for improved and more consistent response to CBRN events.
Emergency Exercises/Training
Regional emergency simulation exercises are held on an ongoing basis, in conjunction with community first responders and EMAT (Emergency Medical Assistance Team).
A CBRN Steering Committee is in place to oversee program development within the NHS. An Emergency Management Co-ordinator develops and delivers training programs, tracks equipment usage and storage, and ensures hospital emergency response codes are up-to-date.
At NHS hospital sites, more than 100 staff members and physicians from key departments have been trained to respond quickly and safely to a CBRN community emergency. As well, the NHS CBRN Steering Committee is identifying opportunities for further program development and co-operative training/exercises with neighbouring LHIN hospitals to ensure inter-operability.
Physical Resources
Newly-acquired equipment provided to support the CBRN response includes one Decontamination Tent for every hospital emergency/urgent care site, plus CBRN equipment and supply stockpiles, including: protective apparel; hand protection; spill control products, radiological/nuclear monitoring systems and air samplers
Personal Protection Equipment or PPE provided includes: coveralls; hazardous materials (hazmat) boots; poly boot covers; disposable coveralls; nitrile and neoprene gloves; chem tape and respiratory gear including full face mask, canisters, respiratory clean wipes and N100 respirators
Detection Equipment provided includes: portal gamma monitoring system ; mini contamination monitor, hand-held; dose rate radiometer; alpha-beta contamination probe; spiral cable; plastic box for meter, probe, cable; manual electronic personal dosimeters; air sampler HV-1RT and tongs.
Decontamination Equipment provided includes: decontamination tent and decontamination shower; portable heaters – air and water; disposable pool; tarpaulin; sorbent pads and pillows; barricade tape; saw horses; tingley rubber boots; roller system for non-ambulatory patients; universal pads; walkie-talkies; absorbent sock and drain cover.
Other decontamination equipment provided includes spill control products (universal pads, universal spill boom, scrub brushes, chemical classifier strips, extension cords, buckets, clear bags, traffic cones, command vests).
For more information, please contact the NHS Emergency Management Co-ordinator at 905-378-4647 ext. 44235.