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

Abstract #117828

Dolores Rose Price, OSHA Education & Training Center, Keene State College, 175 Ammon Drive, Manchester, NH 03103-3308, William Brown, MS, Emergency Services, Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, PO BOX 2014, 8 Prospect Street, Nashua, NH 03061-2014, and Michael J. Reilly, MPH NREMT-P, Center for Public Health Preparedness, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, 722 W. 168th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10032, 212-342-5544, mr2381@columbia.edu.

Introduction: Numerous sources have described the lack of training and personal protective equipment available to hospital-based first receivers. In response to the national need for guidance in implanting worker safety programs for hospital first receivers, OSHA has released a guidance document titled, “OSHA best practices for hospital-based first receivers from mass casualty incidents involving the release of hazardous substances.” Combined with federal and state funding through HRSA and CDC hospital preparedness grant programs, these best practices can be used to design a comprehensive training program, to meet the educational and protective needs of the hospital preparedness community.

Methods: An assessment was performed by the New Hampshire Hospital Association identifying a need to educate hospital personnel on how to safely manage victims of hazardous substance exposures. Personnel from the NH Hospital Association, the Keene State College OSHA Education & Training Center and the Columbia University Center for Public Health Preparedness, collaborated to design a 40-hour train-the-trainer program for hospital preparedness personnel, centered around OSHA's best practices for hospital-based first receivers, to safely care for victims of hazardous substance emergencies.

Implications: The OSHA guidelines for hospital first receivers meet a need to educate and train hospital personnel on the proper methods of PPE use, decontamination, and patient handling after suspected exposure to a hazardous substance. In presenting this model course, participants will learn how this guidance document can be used to develop worker safety training programs which fulfill critical needs in the hospital preparedness to disasters and hazardous materials emergencies.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the OSHA best practices for hospital-based first recievers from mass casualty incidents involving the release of hazardous substances.
• Using the best practices document develop a program to train hospital preparedness personnel in the safe management of hazardous substance casualties.
• Describe how to integrate the OSHA best practices into existing hospital preparedness training and education programs.

Keywords: OSHA, Emergency Department/Room

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.

Recorded presentation