News Releases

NEO MMRS Conference Offers Learning Opportunity for Emergency Preparedness Professionals

Earlier this month Andrea Bishop, project manager for The Center's Emergency Preparedness initiative, spoke at a regional conference regarding the Ohio Patient Tracking System. The 2011 Northeast Ohio MMRS (Metropolitan Medical Response System) Conference, which The Center supported with federal grant dollars, was free to attendees and provided continuing education credits for nurses, social workers/clinical counselors and emergency medical services (EMS) professionals. 

The conference is an opportunity for those whose professional responsibilities include emergency preparedness to gain information that can benefit their organizations by discussing and learning from actual incidents. This year, the conference featured individuals who responded to the Wood County tornado in June 2010 and to the Fairport Harbor gas explosion in January 2011. Other speakers included Steven Sikkema from the US Marshall's Office, who addressed law enforcement security issues related to the strategic national stockpile and disaster response, and Deanna Brant, LPCC-S, with Ravenwood Mental Health Center, who discussed psychology issues for responders who have had contact with victims of disasters.

The Center's Andrea Bishop presented on OHTrac, Ohio's Web-based patient tracking system, and demonstrated its capabilities and potential for use by community stakeholders during a response to an incident or event. At this time, all hospitals throughout the state are on the system and it is currently being rolled out to others, including EMS.

For additional information regarding OHTrac or the MMRS conference, contact Andrea at andrea.bishop@chanet.org or 216.255.3662.