June 25, 2009

HealthcareTAP project focuses on hospital services during a pandemic flu outbreak

Purdue's Healthcare Technical Assistance Program, Purdue Homeland Security Institute and health workers from three nearby counties on Wednesday (June 24) participated in the first in a series of three exercises to test hospital plans focusing on the continuation of essential healthcare services during a pandemic flu outbreak.

Members from hospitals, emergency management services and public health departments from Cass, Carroll and White counties took part in the exercise in Logansport. Exercises also will take place July 9 in Sullivan County and July 17 in Jasper, Ind. Health workers from Dubois and Spencer counties will participate in the latter.

HealthcareTAP is using a $523,000 grant from the Indiana State Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct the project, said Mary Anne Sloan, HealthcareTAP's director. Representatives from the CDC and the state health department observed Wednesday's exercise.

"The purpose of this project is to look at how hospitals will deliver essential healthcare  services for non-flu patients while also providing care to large numbers of flu patients during a pandemic outbreak," Sloan said. "We have worked with the counties over the past six months to develop written plans for that, and now we will be testing those plans.

"The exercise scenario will take participants through the first week and through weeks three and five of an outbreak as more and more people are becoming ill," Sloan said. "We have a model that simulates how many people would come through the hospital and stress the use of planning and resources of healthcare systems to respond to that demand. Do they have enough supplies and staffing? Do they have an effective security plan? How will they establish triage to see large numbers of patients? Will their communications be effective as their hospital becomes more stressed? How are they working with community partners? We're testing those types of things."

Mark Lawley, professor of biomedical engineering; Pat Coyle-Rogers, professor of nursing; and Pam Aaltonen, interim assistant head of the School of Nursing, are contributing to the project. Deb Koester is project manager for HealthcareTAP, Population Health Initiatives. PharmaTAP is also a collaborator. Findings from the project will be shared with CDC and eight other states, also funded to complete similar projects.