Communities Collaborate in EM Planning

• 5/26/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• Category: EC News Blog
• 9905 Views
• 0 Comments
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In a disaster, hospitals and other health care organizations often cannot operate as independent entities. There are too many ways in which they must rely on common resources in the state, city, and community—and on each other.

In Central Indiana, hospitals, community health centers, and other medical, public health, and emergency response organizations have formed a special partnership. Called “MESH,” for Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare, its primary mission is to expand the collective surge capacity of health care organizations in Central Indiana through collaboration.

The MESH coalition has successfully engaged the senior leadership of these organizations in a common planning process. These leaders identified shared risks and developed standardized training and exercise programs that prepared all the organizations to work together during an emergency.

It’s an excellent model of one way to meet Joint Commission standards calling for a collaborative approach to disaster planning.

Read all about it in the June 2010 issue of Environment of Care® News.