IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/johsem/v2y2005i1p5n2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Realtime Testing of a Regional Poison Information Center's Disaster Plan

Author

Listed:
  • Mrvos Rita

    (Pittsburgh Poison Center)

  • Krenzelok Edward P

    (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Poison Center)

Abstract

Background: When a mass contamination occurs, the poison center's responsibilities should be well-defined. A Regional Poison Information Center participated in a county-wide drill involving a mass contamination. Methods: Critique criteria included communication and notification processes, a RPIC's ability to rapidly assess victim symptomatology and identify possible contaminants, utilization of the RPIC by area health care professionals and call volume surge capacity. All calls were to be documented. Results: Fifty percent (50%) of the involved health care facilities contacted the RPIC for treatment recommendations. Internal communications including notification of the RPIC director and medical director were appropriate. Reported symptoms were identified rapidly as being consistent with a nerve agent and/or a vesicant. A fact sheet was prepared by the director and, utilizing the pre-existing hospital notification program was faxed to all hospitals in the region. This drill identified a number of communications problems both within the RPIC hospital network as well as with government and public health agencies. Conclusion: The RPIC functioned efficiently during the drill process although communications were identified as a problem. Modifications were made and will be tested.

Suggested Citation

  • Mrvos Rita & Krenzelok Edward P, 2005. "Realtime Testing of a Regional Poison Information Center's Disaster Plan," Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-5, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:johsem:v:2:y:2005:i:1:p:5:n:2
    DOI: 10.2202/1547-7355.1087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1547-7355.1087
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1547-7355.1087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    POISON; DISASTER; CONTAMINATION;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:johsem:v:2:y:2005:i:1:p:5:n:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.