The Coalition Executive Committee, led by Tracy Pate of The Center for Health Affairs’ emergency preparedness team, at its planning retreat in early August identified critical topics for training beginning this fall through May 2022. They also determined an approach for expanding Executive Committee membership to enhance representation by various sectors, including emergency medical services, emergency management agencies and behavioral health agencies.

The training agenda for the coming months will focus on pressing topics that include:

• Addressing the needs of vulnerable populations.
• Allocation of scarce resources when faced with supply chain constraints.
• Infection control and prevention.
• Emergency staffing and crisis standards of care.
• The role of skilled nursing facilities in hospital surge planning.
• Aligning community health, skilled nursing facilities and public health.

Planning is also underway for an infectious disease tabletop exercise anticipated to take place during the first quarter of 2022. The goal will be to secure the participation by each of the core disciplines in that exercise, which will be a local customization of an exercise being designed by the Ohio Department of Health.

The Northeast Ohio Healthcare Coalition is the group of public, nonprofit, and other entities that receive funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including emergency medical services (EMS), emergency management agencies (EMAs), skilled nursing facilities, , fire departments and public health. These organizations come together to conduct emergency preparedness planning across the five-county region of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain counties and are vital partners to the hospitals in this work.

The Executive Committee retreat that took place earlier this month included representatives from MetroHealth Medical Center, University Hospitals Lake Health, Lorain and Cuyahoga County public health departments, Geauga and Ashtabula County emergency management agencies, City of Cleveland Office of Emergency Management, and Ashtabula County emergency medical services.

For more on the Northeast Ohio Healthcare Coalition and The Center’s emergency preparedness work, contact us.