In the immediate aftermath of a mass casualty incident, victims’ families, as well as authorities, are often left to determine the whereabouts and welfare of their loved ones on their own. Sometimes roaming from one area hospital to another looking for them.
Recently, Hackensack Meridian Health participated in a Homeland Security disaster exercise that piloted a new patient location system to help locate the survivors of a mass casualty or terror attack.
The exercise was funded by the Urban Areas Secuirty Initiative (UASI), the only federal homeland security grant program that requires regional governance, strategic planning and investing involving all disciplines - law enforcement, fire service, public health and medical, public works, critical infrastructure owners and operators, and emergency management – in order to acquire the necessary plans, equipment, training and exercises to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from threats and acts of terrorism and other major hazards in high-density areas.
The operation involved multiple Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals located in New Jersey, including Hackensack University Medical Center, the network’s flagship hospital; Pascack Valley Medical Center; Palisades Medical Center; JFK University Medical Center; and Raritan Bay Medical Center.
The specific objective of Hackensack Meridian Health was to evaluate the efficiency of a beta monitoring system designed to locate patients that have been separated, missing, or lost during a major disaster and taken to area hospitals. The concept for the system was inspired by events such as the tragic 2018 Paramus East Brook Middle School bus crash that left families unable to determine the hospital to which their child was sent.
“There is a significant level of anxiety as families frantically search for a missing loved one,” said Jason A. Bhulai, Project Coordinator, Special Pathogens Emergency Preparedness at Hackensack University Medical Center. “With this new system, we hope to eliminate the delays in gathering data about victims, including the status of their injury and their whereabouts.”
The Hackensack University Medical Center Department of Patient Care Informatics & Department of Emergency Preparedness were lead participants in the exercise - partnering with one of the largest healthcare software networks in the U.S. that focuses on population health, public policy and health surveillance - to test this new system.
“Very often, in mass casualty incidents, there are delays in gathering data about those missing or located within healthcare facilities for reunifications and notifications due to lockdowns and/or ongoing threats or hazards,” explained Thomas Callimano, Director of Emergency Preparedness for Hackensack Meridian Health. “A system like this is paramount to helping our communities and our law enforcement get the information they need quickly.”
The new system will be used in the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) region to enhance the preparedness level of high threat communities of New Jersey and will integrate with Hackensack Meridian Health’s internal electronic medical record system, ultimately creating a more effective emergency response tool within the region.
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