Oral

This session will include discussion on the Columbia University’s Center for Public Health Preparedness “Health Care Staff: Disaster Survey” designed to determine the ability and willingness of home health care employees to report to work during a disaster. Also, included in this session will be the review of ongoing efforts to develop a pandemic plan at the University of Iowa. Another presenter will present results of interviews conducted at 76 emergency receiving hospitals in Los Angeles County on the ability of the clinical community to deal quickly and effectively with a potentially overwhelming surge of pandemic influenza patients. This session will also include discussion on the purchase of vaccine for an influenza pandemic using a comparative cost-benefit model.

Session Objectives: Participants should be able to: Discuss the importance of disaster planning and identify factors that are and are not associated with employee willingness to report to work during natural or terrorist emergencies. Develop a University specific pandemic plan based on models used on other campuses. Discuss differences in expected adherence to clinical care modifications across different health care providers and articulate concerns about the consequences of adequacy of resources and supplies. Describe the use of quantitative modeling to evaluate the cost benefit of various purchasing utilization strategies and to apply quantitative models to assist in the design of preparedness plans.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing