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CHCC eyes more preparedness training for health emergencies, terror attacks
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is looking at beefing up its Public Health and Hospital Emergency Preparedness team this year, according to chief executive officer Esther Muña.
“Early awareness and response to a bioterrorist attack or a disease outbreak could save many lives and potentially stop or slow the spread of an outbreak. The team is always at the forefront of preparedness activities, including preparing for and responding to major, acute threats and emergencies that impact the health of the CNMI people,” Muña said.
CHCC’s emergency preparedness team went through several exercises last year that focused on their response capabilities to bioterrorist attacks or disease outbreaks.
Muña said that training of all medical and non-medical response personnel were accelerated last year to step up their response capabilities.
Muna noted that one of the biggest training exercise they had in 2014 was to prepare for an Ebola virus outbreak, should it reach the CNMI.
“Immediate assessment of our capabilities was made with the emergency preparedness team, the EpiNet survellance team, infection control unit, internal medicine, laboratory, hospital administrator, director of nursing, general support, housekeeping supervisor and other support staff to conduct a ‘dry run test,’” Muña said.
All of the hospital’s critical manpower, including a contact tracing team, were identified and alerted. Personal protective equipment and other inventory resources were identified for the response.
“With our partnership with the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Marianas Visitors Authority, Homeland Security Management, and federal agencies, a site at the airport was identified and is being renovated for CHCC use to screen, quarantine, and isolate arriving passengers who have traveled or may have been in contact with someone from the Ebola affected areas in Africa,” Muña said.
She assured the emergency preparedness team will be continuing with their training activities this year to ensure the safety and health of the people in the CNMI if ever outbreaks or attacks were to occur.
