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Hospitals plan for emergencies By BILL KETTLER Contingency plans crafted to treat victims of airplane crashes and toxic-chemical spills would help Southern Oregon hospitals respond to an outbreak of bio-terrorism here. Each hospital has a "mass casualty" plan for treating a volume of patients who might overwhelm a typical emergency room. The plans include procedures for responding to large-scale disasters such as airline crashes and massive highway accidents, as well as exposure to chemical and biological substances that have suddenly become potential weapons for terrorists. Addressing concerns Public health officials will hold several events to discuss local concerns about bio-terrorism. Environmental Health Director Gary Stevens and county Commissioner Ric Holt will appear on a live radio call-in show starting at 7 a.m. today. Hosted by Garth and Rosemary Harrington, the show is aired at 880 on the AM radio dial. Bio-terrorism will be part of a discussion from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Jackson County Public Health Advisory Board. Stevens and county Emergency Management Coordinator Sandy Eccker will speak. The meeting is held in the auditorium of the Jackson County Courthouse, 10 S. Oakdale, Medford. Oregon epidemiologist Paul Sieslak will hold two meetings in November to discuss bio-terrorism with area doctors and other "first responders" - police, fire and emergency workers. "Our mass casualty plan has always had elements in it that deal with biological or chemical threats," said Deborah Elliott, Providence Medford Medical Center's director of marketing and community relations. "Those agents can be distributed accidentally or introduced by animals. ... What's different (now) is having a terrorist introduce any of those agents. How we respond isn't really that different." Elliott said the plans describe specific, detailed treatment protocols for patients who have been exposed to a number of biological agents. Treating an outbreak of a hard-to-spread disease such as anthrax would require relatively mild measures to isolate patients because anthrax is not spread directly from person to person. An outbreak of, say, pneumonic plague would require more stringent isolation measures because plague can be spread from person to person by microbes on tiny water droplets that leave the body during respiration. Treating viral diseases such as smallpox would require extensive measures such as wearing special masks and washing with antimicrobial soaps. Hospitals would establish a triage system to ensure that the most critically ill people receive treatment first, said Terri Renwick, emergency preparedness coordinator at Rogue Valley Medical Center. RVMC, for example, would set up its triage station on the ramp outside the emergency room. Patients would be assigned to one of three categories: those who needed immediate care; those who had moderate injuries; and those with non-life-threatening injuries who could wait for care. Renwick said any terrorist attack probably would infect relatively few people, but spawn thousands of "worried well" who display symptoms that would make them think they might be infected. The worried well could tax the emergency response system as much as those who were seriously ill, she said. She said a terrorist gas attack killed just 12 people in a Japanese subway, but left 5,000 others fearing their lives were at risk. Renwick said hospitals stock medicines to treat victims and equipment such as gowns, gloves and respirators to protect physicians and nurses. If stocks of medicine were exhausted, hospitals would have to order from their suppliers. How fast those drugs might arrive would depend on the number of people affected in other areas. Hospitals stage regular drills to test their mass casualty plans and refine the plans where they need improvement, Renwick said. "From every practice, we learn something." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.