In 2011, through a contract with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Harvard School of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Exercise Program (HSPH EPREP) engaged Massachusetts’ hospitals in a series of regional tabletop exercises focused on response to a hazardous materials incident. The exercise series highlighted a significant degree of heterogeneity among hospital decontamination programs and capabilities. Subsequent on-site assessments of hospital decontamination systems conducted at a representative sample of facilities throughout the Commonwealth confirmed this finding. To begin to address this issue of heterogeneity, HSPH-EPREP developed structured tools and guides to assist hospitals develop, maintain, and augment their decontamination programs. The Hospital Decontamination Self Assessment Tool was developed to provide hospitals with a means of evaluating decontamination plans and capabilities against current regulatory standards, recommendations from subject matter experts, and national and international healthcare decontamination best practices. This tool provides scalable considerations based upon presently available guidance to assist hospitals plan for and respond to small and large-scale incidents requiring the decontamination of patients contaminated by and/or exposed to chemical, biological, radiological, and/or nuclear agents.
REFERENCE:
Hospital Decontamination Self-Assessment Tool. A resource to assist hospitals evaluate decontamination plans and capabilities. Harvard School of Public Health. 2014
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sigue este Blog en
Facebook y
Twitter
Comentarios