Area Responders Prepared for Possible Ebola Cases
 The Central Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee discussed the topic on Wednesday morning. The committee consists of fire, police, emergency managers, and EMTs including the four pictured here: Lenox Fire Chief Dan Clifford, Dalton Fire Chief Gerald Cahalan, BMC Emergency Management Director Lucy Britton and Pittsfield Fire Chief Robert Czerwinski. |
LENOX, Mass. — The hospital and area first-responders aren't naive enough to think an Ebola patient can't come here.
So over the last six weeks, they have been making sure they know what to do if that happens.
Now, area responders have plans right from start. A protocol has been developed for dispatchers with certain questions as to help determine if the caller is a suspected Ebola case.
From there, a system to alert the responders, state Department of Health and the hospital has been arranged.
The first case was found in the United States in September. By the middle of October, area responders had already outlined their own response plans.
"We have been in the planning process for weeks on the whole subject of Ebola," Brian Andrews had said on Oct. 15.
Andrews heads Emergency Medical Services Corp. of Berkshire County and the organization worked with ambulance services throughout the county and Western Massachusetts trying to ensure "everybody has a universal approach to it."
Those protocols have since been developed and two weeks ago, Berkshire Medical Center held a simulation that started with the ambulances. Both BMC staffers and emergency medical technicians participated.
"Everything went very well as far as I am concerned," said Emergency Management Director Lucy Britton on Wednesday during the Central Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee's monthly meeting.
The hospital will have hazmat suits and proper disinfectants will be made to clean the ambulances. The patient will be dropped off in a certain location with health agents closing off the area to prevent others from accessing it — and preventing the ambulance from leaving uncleaned.
The patient will be taken through a series of decontamination rooms including a "negative pressure room."
"There is nothing fast about dealing with an Ebola patient," Britton said.
Britton said BMC is going to have to be ready to admit the patient. The Department of Public Health will have the say over where the patient would be transferred to but BMC would have the patients for at least 10 hours.
One aspect Britton suggested all responders should practice is getting in and out of the hazmat suits.
"You really have to practice donning and doffing," she said of the way the suits, particularly in getting out of them in a safe manner. "It almost takes three people."
The impermeable suits are something Fire Chief Robert Czerwinski thinks first responders are going to have to get used to. He said he wouldn't be surprised if future regulations require responders to carry hazardous material equipment.
Since the first Ebola patient brought it into the United States, emergency responding organizations nationwide have been ordering appropriate equipment.
"I ordered stuff back in October and still haven't gotten it," Czerwinski said of the backlog of orders on the equipment. "It is a hurry up and wait thing."
The county does have an advantage to other parts of the state in that there are fewer numbers of responders so ensuring everyone is on the same page is easier. All three of the county's emergency facilities are under Berkshire Medical Center's umbrella so the procedures are the same in all three.
The effectiveness of the Berkshire's communications and team work was highlighted by Czerwinski on Wednesday morning in regard to a recent car crash on Route 20 in Hancock.
That accident posed a lot of difficulty for responders. A truck had gone off the road, crashing into trees and crushing the cab. The truck settled at a steep angle on a muddy and slippery hill. It took more than two hours each to extricate the driver and get to the passenger.
The response include fire departments from Hancock, Pittsfield, Richmond and Hinsdale, and Lebanon Valley and Chatham, N.Y.; Pittsfield Police and Massachusetts and New York state police; and the state Department of Transportation. In total more than 30 responders were on scene.
"For a motor vehicle accident, I have never seen so much equipment on the ground," said Hancock Fire Chief Dave Rash.
The organizations all worked together — whether it was closing roads or helping each up get footholds on the steep, muddy climb - Czerwinski said. Eventually, the two victims were airlifted out of New Lebanon, N.Y. and to Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center.
"My guys were totally impressed," Czerwinski said. "Everything was controlled and coordinated."
Tags: disease, emergency committee, hazmat,
