Assignment:
Case
SURGE CAPACITY AND THE ROLE OF HOSPITALS
Case Assignment
Medical surge refers to the ability of a medical community to respond to the increased need of medical care following a disaster or emergency. This also includes the ability of health care organizations to respond to this need with minimally impacting care to others already within the health care system. Hospitals could easily be overwhelmed without proper preparation in a mass casualty event.
Assignment
You are newly hired in the Emergency Disaster Unit of a local hospital. You are following your supervisor who was alerted of mass causalities incoming due to a major explosion at the elementary school. A medical surge is imminent. Your supervisor is activating a system-wide alert and Level 1 Triage. She is asking you to take notes on (a) Setting up the Level 1 triage, (b) The staff involved, (c) Identity of the Community Disaster Management Liaison, (d) Law Enforcement agencies involved (i.e., federal, state, local), (e) Protocol on who speaks with the local press, and (f) who speaks to the parents of the children involved.
1. Explain the triage system and the different levels.
2. A terrorist cell took credit for the explosion, although it is not confirmed. What extra precautions, if any, should the hospital take? Which agencies would be involved?
3. Is the community emergency and disaster management team involved? If so, how?
Be sure to cite the background readings to support your suggestions. Failure to do so will impact your final grade.
Assignment Expectations
Use information from your module readings/articles as well as appropriate research to support your selection.
Length: The Case Assignment should be 3 to 5 pages long (double-spaced).
References: At least three references must be included from academic sources (peer-reviewed journal articles). Required reading is included. Quoted materials should not exceed 10% of the total paper (since the focus of these assignments is critical thinking). Use your own words and build on the ideas of others. Materials copied verbatim from external sources must be enclosed in quotation marks. In-text citations are required as well as a list of references at the end of the assignment. (APA format is recommended.)
Organization: Subheadings should be used to organize your paper according to the questions.
Format: APA format is recommended for this assignment.
Grammar and Spelling: While no points are deducted for minor errors, assignments are expected to adhere to standard guidelines of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence syntax. Points may be deducted if grammar and spelling impact clarity.
The following items will be assessed in particular:
• Achievement of learning outcomes for the Case Assignment.
• Relevance - All content is connected to the question.
• Precision - Specific question is addressed. Statements, facts, and statistics are specific and accurate.
• Depth of discussion - Points that lead to deeper issues are presented and integrated.
• Breadth - Multiple perspectives and references, and multiple issues/factors are considered.
• Evidence - Points are well supported with facts, statistics, and references.
• Logic - Discussion makes sense; conclusions are logically supported by premises, statements, or factual information.
• Clarity - Writing is concise and understandable, and contains sufficient detail or examples.
• Objectivity - Avoids the use of first person and subjective bias.
SLP
SURGE CAPACITY AND THE ROLE OF HOSPITALS
You are a new employee at your county Emergency Management Agency (EMA). Your county suffers a devastating earthquake, knocking out the power grid and causing widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. It is also at the peak of the regular influenza season. You are assigned as your agency's liaison to the County Public Health Department (PHD). Unfortunately, your county EMA and PHD have a history of "working in silos." However, in this emergency, you are going to need to work together in order to serve the population. As your first task, you are asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the EMA team, to help educate those that have limited knowledge about public health and disasters.
You will create several slides in each module, so by Module 4, you will have a complete presentation.
For Module 3, please create several slides that address the following:
• Define Medical Surge
• Define Medical Surge Capacity
• Define Medical Surge Capability
• Explain the MSCC System
• Explain how the MSCC System relates to ICS
SLP Assignment Expectations
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation (at least 5 slides) including speaker's notes (you will be penalized if your speaker's notes are not included).
Include a reference list at the end in a concluding slide. Also, provide the necessary citations in your presentation/speaker's notes.
Additional Resources
What are speaker notes?
As you recall, the PowerPoint slides should only give your audience some key points about the topic. You should not try to "cram" your slides full of information. Speaker's notes can help the presenter remember everything that he or she wants to say about a particular slide.
How do I make speaker's notes?
Follow these simple steps to add speaker's notes to your PowerPoint presentation:
1. Open your PowerPoint presentation
2. Go to the "View" menu and select the "Notes" page.
3. The notes page will be small, so you will have to go to the "View" menu again and select "Zoom" in order to make them bigger. Select the percentage of zoom that you want (the higher the percentage, the larger the page will become).
4. Click inside the notes page and begin typing your speaker notes.
5. Continue doing this on each slide until your speaker notes are written.
Once you have finished writing your speaker notes, save your presentation and it is ready to be graded.
Required Reading
Adalja, A. A., Watson, M., Bouri, N., Minton, K., Morhard, R. C., & Toner, E. S. (2014). Absorbing citywide patient surge during Hurricane Sandy: A case study in accommodating multiple hospital evacuations. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 64(1) 66. Available at Trident Online Library.
American College of Healthcare Executives. (2013). Healthcare executives' role in emergency preparedness.
Cagliuso, N. (2014). Stakeholders' experiences with US hospital emergency preparedness: Part 1. Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 8(2) 156-168. Available at Trident Online Library.
Cagliuso, N. (2014). Stakeholders' experiences with US hospital emergency preparedness - Part 2. Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 8(3) 263-279. Available at Trident Online Library.
DHHS (2007). Medical surge capacity and capability: A management system for integrating medical and health resources during large-scale emergencies.
Dichter, J.R., Kanter, R.K., Dries, D., Luyckx, V., Lim, M.L., Wilgis, J., . . . & Kisson, N. (2014). System-level planning, coordination, and communication. Chest, 146(4) e87S-e102S. Available at Trident Online Library.
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (2006). Surge hospitals: Providing safe care in emergencies.
National Disaster Medical System (2016). NDMS Patient movement exercise.
On you mark, get set, triage! (n. d.). Emergency Physicians Monthly.
Subhash, S.S., &Radonovich, L.J. (2011). Hospital surge capacity. ASHRAE Journal, 53(9) 76. Available at Trident Online Library.
Ugarte, C. et al. (n. d.). Planning and triage in the disaster scenario. AAP.org.
Recommended Reading
Centers for Disease Control (n.d.) Capability 10: Medical surge.
DHHS (2009) Medical surge capacity and capability: A healthcare coalition in emergency response and recovery.
FEMA (2012). ICS 206 Medical Plan.