Exploring Medical and Public Health Preparedness for a Nuclear Incident Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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3 Current State of Nuclear Preparedness
3 Current State of Nuclear Preparedness
Pages 35-46
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From page 35... ...
(Lujan, McClendon, Williams) • The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials uses an all-hazards approach in its public health preparedness plan ning and is now beginning to focus more on nuclear threats, through activities such as the National Alliance for Radiation Readiness and other global partnerships.
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From page 36... ...
Part of his role is to oversee the state's Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, which focuses primarily on radiation readiness for Columbia Generating Station, Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and Naval Base Kitsap. In addition, his office works with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local fire and emergency medi cal services on radiological dispersal device (RDD)
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From page 37... ...
However, compared to the other islands, because of its unique territorial status, Guam is able to lean on DoD to provide resources. At the state level, Williams explained that Washington's Department of Health initiated its Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program in the 1970s because of the radiological hazards at the Columbia Generating S tation, the Hanford plutonium development site, and the U.S.
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From page 38... ...
How ever, it is unclear how prepared the county is for a larger, state-sponsored event. While the county continues to engage the private sector to support preparedness -- including private health care systems, medical societies, and nongovernmental organizations -- the private sector partners are not used to the typical government command and control structure, McClendon said.
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From page 39... ...
Aside from broad all- azards lessons in h disaster preparedness, McClendon said that Harris County has not devel oped a response plan specifically for state-sponsored nuclear incidents. Finally, Hawkins offered NARR's perspective on nuclear preparedness, representing a broad coalition of state and local health partners.
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From page 40... ...
Based on past experience with Type 1 incidents -- the most complex incidents according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's emergency management grading scale -- he described how local jurisdictions tend to scramble during the first few hours of a r esponse, attempting to make sense of what is going on. He imagined that a state-sponsored nuclear incident would be so traumatic that it would stun them initially.
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From page 41... ...
WORKFORCE TURNOVER: A MAJOR CHALLENGE TO PREPAREDNESS Lavin, the moderator, asked panelists how preparedness efforts and plans at the state and local levels are relayed to hospitals, public health departments, and health care providers who are responsible for medical care in the event of a nuclear incident. In response, most of the panelists expressed concern about workforce turnover.
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From page 42... ...
Williams agreed that staff turnover is a challenge and that maintain ing boots on the ground readiness requires ongoing effort. When pre paredness activities were still part of the Health Resources & Services Administration (prior to moving to ASPR)
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From page 43... ...
and asked the panelists about efforts being made to ad dress crisis standards of care: Are state, local, and territorial jurisdictions working with the health care sector to develop response plans to potential emergencies of this magnitude, during which there may be hundreds of thousands of people needing care? Williams replied that in his prior role with Washington State's Public Health Preparedness Program, he and colleagues developed a number of work groups to address crisis standards of care.
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From page 44... ...
Concerns About Local Preparedness and Public Outreach Raymond Puerini, senior program analyst, NACCHO, echoed panelists' concerns about local preparedness and shared findings from NACCHO's most recent annual preparedness profile assessment indicating a low level of concern regarding radiation issues. About 20 percent of respondents ex pressed concern about an accidental release, and only 16 percent reported feeling very prepared for an actual radiation emergency.
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From page 45... ...
In addition, they partnered with the University of Guam to hold live broadcasts. Partnering with Vendors In addition to the partnerships described by Hawkins, Kris Arnold of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council suggested pursuing partnerships with hospital product vendors.
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