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Exercise identifies gaps in NMI’s pandemic response
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Posted on Nov 15 2016
Several government agencies came together last week at Fiesta Resort and Spa Saipan for a tabletop exercise that will identify gaps in the event of a pandemic influenza and mass fatality situation in the CNMI.
Warren Villagomez, Public Health Hospital and Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity director, said the exercise aimed to determine what could be done to improve local response to a pandemic.
The agencies that participated in the Nov. 9 and 10 exercises were the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, CNMI Homeland Security, CNMI Medical Reserve Corps, private ambulance, and various other Commonwealth Health Center staff.
“It encompasses the testing of our current medical capability. The purpose of this tabletop is to learn, see, and identify gaps to make sure that we come up with corrective action and develop a better sustainable plan,” said Villagomez. “We’re looking forward to functional exercises in the near future, not too long from now, to really get all the players in the tabletop to administer and exercise what they’ve learned from the discussions.”
“We’re testing our capability with our stakeholders and partners,” said Villagomez. “We call it the pandemic influenza/mass fatality but really it is the approach to an all-hazard response. We also included the Tinian and Rota resident directors for health, so it’s really a good mix of participants. We had the commissioner of fire as well and homeland security and their planners.”
The exercise was funded by the Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program under the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.
“There is a lot of good interactive information that was shared among partners and stakeholders and we are going to take that with us to identify and come up with a good solution so that the CNMI would be in a better place responding to outbreaks,” added Villagomez.
DFEMS Operations Commander Jesse Mesa said the tabletop exercise was successful in recognizing what needed to be reinforced.
“It was good. A lot of the participants were young and needed more training, guidance, and understanding of the Incident Command System,” said Mesa.
Mesa said that DFEMS Commissioner Clyde Norita was also present during the tabletop exercise.
