August 2022 Newsletter

As a valued partner of the Vermont Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Coalition (VHEPC), you will receive this quarterly newsletter highlighting coalition business, upcoming events and preparedness resources. As a reminder, we recommend you bookmark the VHEPC website calendar and check it often. We are continually curating the calendar with meetings, trainings and exercises.

Our Mission

Our coalition is a multi-disciplinary partnership collaborating with our members, stakeholders, and surrounding communities to improve and expand emergency preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities. The VHEPC works with healthcare entities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies in the state of Vermont.

VHEPC Announcements and Upcoming Events

Photo Credit: AbsolutVision via Unsplash

**VHEPC Full Coalition Meeting**

Click HERE to see more meeting information
**Thursday August 11, 2022 from 10:00AM-2:00PM**

Register Here

**Project Firstline: Hand Hygiene**

This will be a case study discussion on hand hygiene and how to improve compliance in your healthcare work setting.
**Wednesday August 17, 2022 from 12:00PM-1:00PM**

Register Here

**Vermont EMS for Children: August Case Review**

Pediatric Trauma
**Wednesday August 24, 2022 from 7:00PM-8:00PM**

Join Here

Education and Webinars

Becoming Comfortable with Health Equity Concepts and Language Webinar

CDC

The webinar will address the role of health communications in removing social obstacles that lead to poor health outcomes and health disparities.

When: August 8, 2022 from 2:00PM to 3:00PM

Where: Virtual

ASPR TRACIE Disaster Available Supplies in Hospitals (DASH) Tool Webinar

ASPR

ASPR TRACIE is hosting an overview webinar on the new DASH Tool. DASH is an online, interactive tool for hospital emergency planners and supply chain staff to estimate supplies that may need to be immediately available during various emergencies based on their hospital’s characteristics. The webinar will provide an overview and demonstration of DASH, in addition to sharing information on how it may be used from both the hospital and supply chain perspective.

When: August 15, 2022 from 11:30PM to 12:30PM

Where: Virtual

Contagion and Crisis Communications Webinar

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

When one shooting leads to another research shows the media coverage causes that contagion effect. Hear the latest data and research on the contagion effect induced by media coverage and consider the impact of social media. Understand ways to control messaging and how to avoid a contagion creating event when violence strikes your community.

This Session will provide:

• A better understanding of how and when violence becomes a copy-cat event
• How to dissect the related data
• The latest data and research on the contagion effect induced by media coverage
• Ways to control messaging when targeted violence strikes your community
• How to avoid a contagion creating event in your community

When: August 18, 2022 from 11:30AM to 1:00PM

Where: Virtual

Suicide Prevention and Awareness Training for EMS and First Responders Webinar

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

EMS and First Responders will learn basic knowledge and skills of suicide prevention, including societal myths and attitudes, state and national trends, warning signs, what to say and do, and local and national resources for help. Participants learn behavioral practice techniques to apply the three-step process for talking with someone who is struggling with mental health including suicidal ideation.

When: August 25, 2022 from 6:30PM to 8:00PM

Where: Virtual

The Day the Blue Bloater met the Pink Puffer Webinar

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

One of the most common calls to which an EMS provider responds is the classic “shortness of breath”. While there are many causes behind this chief complaint, this presentation focuses upon the two main types of COPD – emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Both disease processes’ pathophysiology are compared and contrasted as well as their signs and symptoms. This presentation follows an imaginary storyline of two patients named Betty and Earl that helps to explain the differences and commonalities of these two respiratory emergencies.

When: September 7, 2022 from 7:00PM to 8:00PM

Where: Virtual

Together We Can Do So Much: Centering and Elevating the Voices of Those with Lived Experience in Health Equity Webinar

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

Please consider joining us as we meet members of Vermont Department of Health’s new Health Equity Integration Team, discuss best practice and strategies for shifting power to communities, and hear about the department-wide work in which they are engaged.

When: September 14, 2022 from 11:30AM to 1:00PM

Where: Virtual

VT Medical Operations Network - Concept to Activation Webinar

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

In September 2020, the Vermont Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Coalition (VHEPC) conducted a COVID-19 Gap Assessment that identified the need for a centralized process to share healthcare information and coordinate healthcare resources.

To address this need, the Vermont Medical Operations Workgroup (MOW) was established in March 2021 to “Vermont-ize” ASPR’s Medical Operations Coordination Cell (MOCC) concept. Over the next several months, the MOW gathered a group of stakeholders to develop the Vermont Medical Operations Network (MON) as a centralized hub for healthcare information sharing, resource coordination, patient movement, and clinical expertise for any event that impacts healthcare facilities.

As the workgroup was refining the Concept of Operations (CONOPS), the COVID-19 Omicron variant arrived in rural Vermont, and the MON was activated in December 2021 to support rural acute care hospital requests for staffing and other resources. The MON also supported skilled nursing facility staffing requests as well as coordinating COVID-19 therapeutics to healthcare partners and prisons. VHEPC members were key partners in the workgroup, and this panel presentation with representation from VHEPC, Vermont Department of Health, Vermont Association for Hospitals and Health Systems, and All Clear Emergency Management Group, LLC. will review the conditions that necessitated the MON, the core functions and participants in the MON, and what’s next for the MON.

When: September 27, 2022 from 11:30AM to 1:00PM

Where: Virtual

Hypothermia Webinar

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

In this webinar we will discuss new directions in hypothermia in the EMS and Wilderness Environments. We will learn a new simplified clinical staging approach, how to determine if CPR is indicated, a decision tree for transport designation decisions, and when/how to perform prolonged or intermittent CPR.

When: October 19, 2022 from 7:00PM to 8:00PM

Where: Virtual

CMS Exercise for Ancillary Healthcare: Utility Failure

Vermont Healthcare and EMS Preparedness Webinar Series

Join your healthcare community for a utility failure exercise which has been specifically developed for Vermont's Ancillary Healthcare (Long Term Care, Home Health, Dialysis, Skilled Nursing, and other Non-Hospital) organizations looking to complete their Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 'required' exercise. During the exercise, participants will partake in an exercise designed to engage your staff with the healthcare community while participating in operations-based tasks and discussions.

When: October 27, 2022 from 10:00AM to 1:00PM

Where: Virtual

Welcome 2022-23 Executive Committee

Please welcome our new 2022-2023 VHEPC Executive Committee. This year our Executive Committee is made up of a Chair, Co-Chair and 4 Members At-Large. Click on the Committee Member Bios button to read about each member.
Chair: Alissa Fontaine
Co-Chair: Jonathan Scott
Member At-Large: Art Groux
Member At-Large: Charlie Miceli
Member At-Large: Heather Rigney
Member At-Large: Liz Rowell

Committee Member Bios

Training Corner

Find the latest trainings here.

K 0419 - Shelter Field Guide Training for State and Local Communities

When: August 23-24, 2022 from 11:00AM to 4:00PM

Where: Virtual

Register Here

MGT 417 - Crisis Management for School-Based Incidents for Key Decision Makers

When: October 4-5, 2022 from 8:00AM to 4:00PM

Where: Londonderry Rescue Squad, Londonderry, VT

Registration required via State Learning Management System:

Register Here

Also, through Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC)

Register Here

ICS 400 - Advanced ICS for Command and General Staff

When: October 25-26, 2022 from 8:00AM to 4:30PM

Where: Springfield Fire Station - Springfield, VT%

Prerequisite: ICS-300

Register Here

ICS 300 - Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents

When: September 27-29, 2022 from 8:00AM to 4:30PM

Where: Hartford (White River Jct.)

This three-day course is designed for those emergency response personnel who would function in a Command or General Staff position during a large, complex incident or event or personnel who are or would likely be part of a local or regional Incident Management Team during a major incident, whether single agency, multiagency or Unified Command.

Create an account on the State Learning Management System:

https://vermont.csod.com/selfreg/register.aspxc=%255e%255e%255eQGm2wxcSUvINsXvXjRYs1A%253d%253d

Register Here