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Abstract #153220

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Christopher J. Godfrey, MA, PhD¹, Donald Decker, MSW¹, Debra E. Berg, MD², Marsha Williams, MPH¹, Dale McShine¹, and Gail Wolsk, DSW¹. (1) Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, CN 22-A, New York, NY 10013, 212-442-9054, cgodfre1@health.nyc.gov, (2) Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Program, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, CN 22-A, New York, NY 10013

A key component of healthcare emergency preparedness plans is provision for the mental and psychosocial well-being of the healthcare community - workers, patients and their families - during a disaster. To date there have been few efforts to measure the quality of these provisions. In 2006-07, The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene evaluated local hospitals' mental health emergency response plans(MH-ERPs). Here we present a promising method for evaluating MH-ERPs, findings and recommendations.

Twenty-eight MH-ERPs were assessed on six attributes: 1) healthcare community involvement in planning (HCI), 2) integration with Hospital Incident Command Systems (iHICS), 3) utilization of mental health support strategies, 4) provision for supporting staff and patient's family needs, 5) education/training, and 6) additional mental health staff acquisition. Scoring was based on presence and quality of each attribute. Quality was measured in terms of detail and specificity (0=lowest to 4=highest). For example, presence of mental health staff's Job Action Sheets is a key attribute of iHICS; whether these sheets are generic or fitted to the hospital's ICS indicates quality.

90% of plans contained attributes of all six dimensions. HCI was omitted most (73% of MH-ERPs). The average (mean) quality score was 2.35. Quality was greatest in family support planning (mean =3.56) and lowest in planning for staff education and training (mean=2.15).

Hospital MH-ERPs often lack hospital-specific details to make them truly useful. Measuring MH-ERP quality can illuminate hidden strengths and weakness in the healthcare preparedness efforts and provides government with evidence-based direction for funding initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe five key attributes of mental health emergency response plans quality.
• Articulate a procedure for eveidence-based assessment of an emergency response plan.
• Discuss the role of assessing ERP quality in healthcare emergency response planning.

Keywords: Disasters, Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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