Bomb Scare Shuts Down National Disaster Drill

Bomb Scare Shuts Down National Disaster Drill
     A real bomb scare led to cancellation of a day's worth of TOPOFF terrorism-response exercise activities in Portland on October 18.

     During a routine sweep preceding the arrival of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, three separate bomb-sniffing dogs alerted in the first floor of a parking garage at the Doubletree Hotel event site. This led authorities to block off several blocks around the site and shut down mass transit in the area. A TOPOFF media briefing and photo opportunity planned for the afternoon were cancelled.

     Portland police focused on one vehicle, which turned out to belong to a TOPOFF participant. The participant was located and cooperated in their investigation, which found no explosives. Police speculated that the dogs picked up explosive or other residue on this car or others nearby. (A bus had been blown up earlier as part of the exercise.)

     "It's very unusual to have [such] a concentration of military and law enforcement vehicles in the same place," PPD spokesman Brian Schmautz told The Oregonian newspaper, adding that explosive residue can get "baked in" on vehicles and that members of his department's explosives team often trigger alarms in airports from residue on their clothing.

     This year's TOPOFF event posited dirty bombs being detonated in Portland, Phoenix and Guam.
-The Oregonian; The Columbian

PUBLIC SAFETY SPECTRUM TRUST names Cyren Call as liaison
     Cyren Call Communications has been selected as the primary liaison between the commercial sector and the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), an emergency-services consortium vying to win the right to construct a nationwide public-safety broadband wireless communications network.

     The PSST, which announced the agreement in October, is now developing a Statement of Requirements that defines the prospective network for potential commercial investors who will serve as partners in its construction. This document will describe the network's creation, operation and cost.

     Auction of recently vacated 700 MHz spectrum begins in January. At issue is spectrum in the range's D Block, which is adjacent to an area designated for public safety. By combining part of the commercial spectrum with that coming to public safety, the Trust hopes to facilitate creation of a nationwide broadband network that would enable things like on-scene video feeds, telemedicine and other high-bandwidth applications. The winning commercial bidder would get secondary access to the public-safety spectrum, and the combined network would allow commercial services while maintaining a nationwide network for public safety, including priority access during emergencies.

     The PSST's board includes members of such groups as the National Association of State EMS Officials, International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Emergency Number Association and Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International.
-Public Safety Spectrum Trust, Cyren Call

400 COMPRESSIONS SHOWS PROMISING RESULTS
     A departure from traditional CPR in Oklahoma is leading to improved survival rates and greater bystander intervention, the Daily Oklahoman reported in October.

     The Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), which serves Tulsa and Oklahoma City, began two years ago telling 9-1-1 callers to perform 400 chest compressions, with no rescue breaths, on cardiac arrest victims. Since then, it has seen increases in both bystanders' use of CPR-up 23% since December 2005-and in patients leaving hospitals without neurological damage.

     "People are more likely to do CPR if they don't have to give the mouth-to-mouth part," EMSA communications director Frank Gresh told The Oklahoman.

     EMSA responders reach patients within 4½ minutes about 60% of the time, officials said-almost always before a caller can perform 400 compressions.
-The Oklahoman

MEDICS SUCCESSFULLY TREAT MINOR WOES
     The results of an English pilot program suggest paramedics can successfully manage non-life-threatening emergencies in the community, rather than transporting the patients to hospitals, BBC News reported in October.

     The program in South Yorkshire allowed medics to assess and treat problems such as falls, lacerations, nosebleeds and minor burns among patients 60 and older. These patients experienced shorter treatment times (by an average of around 42 minutes) with comparable outcomes, and were almost 25% less likely to visit an ED or require hospital admission within the next 28 days. They also reported high levels of satisfaction with the service.
-BBC News

NAEMT ANNOUNCES 2007 award winners
     The National Association of EMTs concluded its annual meeting in October with the presentation of its annual awards. This year's honorees were:

• EMT of the Year-Leroy Funderburk, Largo, FL;
• Paramedic of the Year (Laerdal Award for Excellence)-Tom E. Wilson, El Dorado, AR;
• EMS Administrator of the Year-Chief Richard Serino, Boston EMS;
• EMS Medical Director of the Year-Timothy Peterson, MD, Taos, NM;
• EMS Instructor/Coordinator of the Year-Jill M. Torres, NREMT-P, CCEMT-P, Salem, WI.

     The organization also recognized the winners of this year's EMS Magazine/NAEMT Gold Award, Slaterville Volunteer Ambulance of Slaterville Springs, NY, and Baxter Regional Medical Center Ambulance of Mountain Home, AR. It gave the Rocco V. Morando Lifetime Achievement Award to Patricia Hastings, MD, of San Antonio, and the National Children's Champion Award to Katrina B. Altenhofen, EMT-P, of Washington, IA. Geoff Miller of Miami was announced as winner of the Anthony S. Maniscalco Memorial Scholarship, and Larry Tan, of Newark, DE, as winner of the Chiefs, Officers and Administrators Division's Harvard Executive Session Scholarship.

     Also at the meeting, the NAEMT's Board of Governors elected three new members to the organization's Board of Directors. The new members are Don Lundy, director of Charleston County EMS in South Carolina; Jennifer Frenette, a 20-year EMS veteran whose positions have included state training coordinator, hospital EMS coordinator, educator and practicing EMT-I; and Jim Slattery, president of the Massachusetts EMS Association and acting executive director of the Southeastern Massachusetts EMS Council.
-NAEMT

JUSTICE LOOSENS CRITERIA USED TO WEIGH PSOB CLAIMS
     The Department of Justice has issued a pair of policy guidance documents that outline a bit of relaxation in how applicants for the Public Safety Officers' Benefit (PSOB) program are evaluated, the NAEMT told its members in an October release.

     One new policy specifies that no activity shall be understood to be "performed as a matter of routine" based solely on an agency's describing it as "routine" or "ordinary." Determining whether an activity is "routine" will be based in larger part on its stressful or strenuous characteristics, and less on how often it is performed, according to the new DOJ rules.

     As well, a claimant's medical history records will no longer be required when application data doesn't suggest factors outside the line of duty caused a fatal heart attack or stroke. The presence of cardiovascular disease or risk factors discovered after death won't be considered unless it appears the deceased knew of, or should have known of, its presence and aggravated it through his or her behavior.

     The award now pays more than $300,000.
-NAEMT

ACEP FETES TOP doctors
     The American College of Emergency Physicians honored a number of top emergency doctors at its annual meeting in October in Seattle.

     Among those recognized was Maryland EMS chief Robert Bass, who received the organization's Outstanding Contribution to EMS Award, given annually to an individual making a significant contribution to the development or promotion of EMS. Bass is executive director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems.
-ACEP

MEDIC'S WRAP MAY SPEED EXTRICATIONS
     A new device to help extricate patients from vehicle wreckages faster has won plaudits from Scottish ambulance crews and top medical figures, the Scottish Press Association reported in October.

     The Resqroll, invented by paramedic Brian Carlin, lets crews remove victims from crashes or confined spaces without manually stabilizing the head. Composed of a neck support, head/body support and knee lift, it wraps around the victim and becomes rigid during lifting, supporting the spine.

     The Resqroll is made of latex rubber and a special strengthening material for the mesh.
-Scottish Press Association Newsfile

MILITARY DOC ASSUMES PRESIDENCY OF ACEP
     Col. Linda Lawrence, MD, FACEP, became the first active-duty military emergency physician to lead the American College of Emergency Physicians when she assumed the group's presidency in October.

     Lawrence, of Fairfield, CA, is an emergency medicine consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General and chief of medical staff at Travis Air Force Base's David Grant Medical Center.

     At ACEP's annual convention, held in Seattle, she told how her grandmother was "boarded" in an emergency department and urged emergency docs to "turn up the volume" in advocating for their patients."My family is connected to the millions of families that go through such an ordeal every year," she said. "Tomorrow it may be your family."
-ACEP

UPMC's 'One-Stop Shop' for Disaster Response
     In a major incident, particularly a pandemic or biological attack, communications and situational awareness within the healthcare system will be keys to an effective response. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have developed a system they believe can facilitate both.

     Their solution is called SBEOCS, for the Strategic Biodefense Emergency Operations and Communications System. Begun in 2005 and now production-ready, it offers:

• A Web-based prototype system, PrepLink, that provides real-time incident information, including things like hospital statuses and equipment availability/location, to EOCs, hospitals and others within the healthcare system. The capability is based around WebEOC software from ESi and, by next year, should be extended to frontline providers via their PDAs.
• A mass-notification system, HealthComm, by which key personnel (physicians and other healthcare providers, government officials, National Guard, etc.) can be alerted in a variety of ways when an incident occurs;
• A Web-based portal to communicate important disaster information (e.g., shelter locations, road closures, etc.) to citizens and businesses; and
• A "biodefense schoolhouse" to disseminate training and educational information to public safety and healthcare personnel.

     "It gives EMS providers everything in one place," says Kathy Criss, director of UPMC's Disaster Management Center. "The information to capture patient conditions, hospital and bed availability, treatment protocols-you have everything in one place, so you don't have to go searching for it. It's kind of a one-stop shop."

     Development of the SBEOCS was funded by a federal appropriation spearheaded by Rep. John Murtha, who hoped it would serve as a model for other regions as well as enhancing preparedness in western Pennsylvania, which, he notes, is within 500 miles of 50% of the population of the U.S.

     The system was featured in a July MCI simulation exercise, Operation Red Rose II, that was coordinated by the Pennsylvania National Guard and involved more than 500 responders. Continued from an exercise last year and based around a dirty-bomb scenario, it brought together a variety of players who had to communicate and coordinate effectively under a unified command.

     Using SBEOCS, such responders were able to communicate and exchange data in a variety of ways: by radio, of course, but also via satellite and a mobile mesh network set up by St. Francis University's Center of Excellence for Remote and Medically Under-Served Areas (CERMUSA). This allowed luxuries like video feeds from the scene. It also represented an opportunity to deploy UPMC's Simulation Medical And Resource Training (SMART) unit, a hybrid control/treatment/training/communications support vehicle used to provide medical care to casualties (which included real victims of the day's heat in addition to those simulated for the exercise).

     Among the areas tested was patient tracking. Developing a tracking system that meets everyone's needs has been a problem for system designers, and test-driving a pair of options during the exercise didn't produce any solutions.

     "It's probably our biggest concern," says Criss. "We've reviewed tons of systems and really not found one that meets the needs of both EMS and hospitals. We haven't found one that works from the beginning all the way through to disposition of the patient, which is really what we're looking for. We're actually starting to look at some military systems, because they seem to have the best of both worlds."

     Once production-ready, SBEOCS will be used regionally in Pennsylvania. For more information on the system, contact Rebecca Nelson at nelsonrj@upmc.edu.
-John Erich, Associate Editor