Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117410

Richard Rosselli, MPH¹, Meetal Morjaria, MPA¹, Sara A. Kuppin, MSPH², Delia Easton, PhD², Elsie U. Lee, MD MPH³, Kelly Henning, MD³, and Debra E. Berg, MD³. (1) Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, New York City Department of Health, 125 Worth Street, Room 225; Box 22A, New York, NY 10013, 212-788-4663, rrossell@health.nyc.gov, (2) Fund for Public Health in New York, 93 Worth Street, New York, NY 10003, (3) Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, Room 222, CN 22-A, New York, NY 10013

Background: There has been increased interest in the simulation of emergency events, for example through tabletop exercises, in order to increase disaster preparedness in health care facilities. Yet, few materials are currently available to assist emergency response planners in hospitals and primary care centers in developing, conducting and evaluating their own exercises.

Development: In 2003, federal funding was provided to New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) to conduct a demonstration project to address the special needs of high-risk, densely populated urban areas in preparing for bioterrorism attacks by developing and evaluating models of tabletop exercises in hospitals and primary care centers.

Implementation: From August 2004 to January 2005, DOHMH piloted a series of bioevent tabletop exercises at ten NYC hospitals and four primary care centers. Infectious disease scenarios included intentional releases of smallpox, anthrax and plague, and natural outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and pandemic influenza. Qualitative data looking at the impact of the exercise on staff preparedness was collected through a series of focus groups comprised of tabletop exercise participants. Knowledge gained through this process is currently being incorporated into a toolkit intended to provide guidance and template materials for hospital exercise planners.

Evaluation: Preliminary data show that bioevent tabletop exercises are helpful in providing disaster preparedness training to a diverse selection of hospital and primary care center staff. Once the exercise guidance toolkit has been developed, it will be further refined at five additional NYC hospitals and disseminated nationally in September 2005.

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of the presentation/poster, the participant should have attained competency in understanding how tabletop exercises are conducted and their value for improving preparedness for biological emergency events among hospital and primary care staff.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.