King County Healthcare Coalition

Planning Areas Regional Surge Capacity

Alternate Care Facilities

The Alternate Care Facility 's primary mission will be to utilize non-medical buildings that will be repurposed in the event of a disaster for the delivery of healthcare services. The goal will be to augment and assist the healthcare system by providing an alternative healthcare delivery system focused on non complex care.

Objectives (applicability will be scenario dependent)

1. To deliver sufficient medical care for patients that have specific illnesses or injuries due to a disaster and that cannot be adequately and timely provided by an existing healthcare sector (e.g. ambulatory care clinics, hospitals, long-term care facilities or home health services).
2. To deliver urgent care (non-life threatening medical care) to offload Emergency Departments (ED) and ambulatory care clinics, so that these sectors can maximize care for other patient needs.
3. To deliver non-complex care which is traditionally provided in inpatient care settings and offload acute care hospitals to maximize care for more critically ill patients with potentially survivable conditions.
4. To deliver non-complex care which is usually provided at home with home health services for patients that have insufficient home situations and for when home health care services and hospitals are operating above maximal capacity to offload acute care hospitals to maximize care for more critically ill patients.
5. To facilitate follow-up services so patients can be safely discharged to a non-medical site (e.g. home, shelter) and where follow-up at EDs or ACFs is minimized.

Non-Hospital Business Resiliency Workshops

The King County Healthcare Coalition and Public Health Seattle and King County recently received a competitive grant award from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). With this Partnership Grant, Public Health – Seattle & King County and the King County Healthcare Coalition sought to fund non-hospital healthcare agencies serving King County to develop and enhance their resiliency in an emergency.

Objectives

1. Public Health – Seattle & King County and the King County Healthcare Coalition sought to fund projects designed to assist the King County region in becoming better prepared and ready to respond to the needs of at-risk populations during times of disaster. Projects submitted were designed to regionally benefit at-risk populations rather than one individual organization or treatment provider.
2. Awards of up to $24,000 were available to fund projects that assisted one or more of the following non-hospital providers in King County: mental health, substance abuse, long-term care (nursing homes, boarding homes, adult family homes, home health and home care), pediatric care, ambulatory care, palliative care and other specialty services (e.g. dialysis providers, blood centers, poison center, surgical centers, etc).

OTHER TOOLS

Business Resiliency Manual

Business Resiliency Workbook for Healthcare Professionals

Disaster Family Information and Assistance

OBJECTIVES

1. Determine strategy and guidelines for coordinating healthcare patient/victim tracking information
2. Develop policies and protocol for communication with families/Next of Kin during an emergency or disaster regarding patients, victims and unaccounted for persons
3. Establish operational protocol for healthcare facility based disaster family information and support center
4. Develop operational protocol for countywide or regional Family Assistance Center
5. Establish behavioral health response plan to meet the mental health and spiritual care needs of family and friends of disaster related patients or victims

Healthcare Mass Fatality Management

OBJECTIVES

1. Facilitate coordination between healthcare facilities, mortuary service providers and the King County Medical Examiner 's Office regarding deaths that occur during an emergency or disaster
2. Develop strategy and guidelines for healthcare facilities to improve surge capacity for handling fatalities during an emergency or disaster
3. Provide technical assistance to healthcare facilities on mass fatality management

Regional Medical Evacuation & Patient Tracking Taskforce

OBJECTIVE

A Multidisciplinary taskforce to support the development of a regional medical evacuation and patient tracking mutual aid plan

OTHER TOOLS

Regional Medical Evacuation & Patient Tracking Presentation

Coming Soon! Regional Medical Evacuation Tabletop After Action Report

Regional Medical Evacuation & Patient Tracking (MAP) Memorandum of Understanding

MAP Signatory Sheet

Volunteer Management (Staffing)

This system will include protocols to register, credential, assign, train, and badge a range of medical volunteers to support a region-wide healthcare system response in a disaster. This comprehensive effort will incorporate volunteers from our Public Health Reserve Corps, other medical reserve corps within and outside King County, as well as various other volunteers.

OBJECTIVES

1. Research and consolidate regional staffing initiative efforts
2. Develop Overall Volunteer Management System regarding:
• Recruitment
• Registration
• Training
• Credentialing
• Deployment
3. Define Volunteer Categories and their management and utilization:
• Affiliated Volunteers
• Pre-Registered Volunteers
• Spontaneous Volunteers
• Volunteer Groups
4. Develop Volunteer Credentialing Process & Agreements
5. Develop and Implement Staffing Models for Alternate Care Facilities, Medical Needs Shelters and other support facilities
6. Develop Volunteer Database and Call Up Procedures
7. Integrate VMS leadership and staffing into Incident Command System Organizational Structure
8. Institute and Standardize Agreements among County Medical Institutions regarding the acceptance of Volunteer Assistance in Disasters