Health Care Facility Training and Management
Hospital Decontamination Practices Hospital Incident Command System (HICS IV) NIMS Hospital Based Exercises
AFSS can assist your health care facility with all elements of NIMS implementation, exercise requirements, patient and equipment decontamination and HICS IV, the NIMS compliant version of the Hospital Incident Command System formally know as HEICS.
Hospital Decontamination Practices
Hospital Decontamination Practices is an 8 hour course designed to cover Haz-mat basics including route of entry, mechanism of injury, types of hazardous materials, levels of personal protective equipment (PPE), weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) and domestic/industrial hazardous materials found in your community.
Students will learn about control
zones and site selection for patient decontamination operations along with the
Mechanics of patient decontamination.
This course covers all OSHA required elements for respiratory protection in the workplace including a review of your respiratory plan , respiratory hazards and reasons for selection of respiratory equipment. Students will be led in a discussion about donning, doffing, and use of PAPRs, along with with what to look for in failure of the equipment as well as care and maintenance of equipment. Also included is a review of other PPE elements, including, coveralls, gloves and boots. Students will learn the levels of PPE, limitations of equipment used and what to consider when selecting PPE.
Students will participate in practical exercises involving donning and doffing of the entire PPE ensemble and practice setting up al decontamination equipment in use at the hospital. Students will be evaluated on equipment selection and set-up and establishment of control zones.
The course will culminate with a 15 question multiple choice written test on topics covered throughout the program.
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Hospital Incident Command System (HICS IV)
Every significant incident or event, whether large or small, and whether it is even defined as an emergency, requires certain management functions to be performed. This course is intended to explain in a clear and concise manner the critical components of the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) as well as the suggested manner for using the accompanying materials.
HICS is intended to be used by all hospitals, regardless of their size or patient care capabilities and assist with their emergency planning and response efforts for all hazards. By embracing the concepts and incidents command design outlined in HICS, a hospital is positioned to be consistent with the National Incident Management System incident command design guidelines and to participate in a system that promotes greater national standardization in terminology, response concepts, and procedures.
The primary beneficiaries of HICS will be physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, department heads and other personnel in hospitals in the United States and internationally who will assume command roles during an incident. Students preparing for a career in medicine, nursing and hospital administration, whose education should include understanding hospital emergency preparedness principles and practices, will also find the materials useful.
Other community response partners need to understand the hospital command system design and the response activities and needs that the hospitals will have during various types of incidents. Therefore, local/tribal, state and federal public safety, emergency management and public health officials will also benefit from this course.
HICS is made up of 12 modules:
Module 1 - ICS 100 - Introduction to ICS
Module 2 - ICS 200 - Basic ICS
Module 3 - IS 700 - NIMS, An Introduction
Module 4 - IS 800 - National Response Plan, An Introduction
Module 5 - Overview of the Hospital Incident Command System Project
Module 6 - Review of the Incident Command System
Module 7 - NIMS: Compliance Activities for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations
Module 8 - The Emergency Management Program
Module 9 - The Hospital Incident Command System
Module 10 - The Life Cycle of an Incident
Module 11 - Incident Planning and Incident Response Scenarios
Module 12 - Application of HICS Principles and Practices
Many healthcare facilities have already completed modules 1 through 4. This course is available in a customized format for facilities that have completed modules 1 through 4.
Each learning module begins with a set of learning objectives and concludes with a review of points to allow the student to follow, and the HICS instructors to present the material in a clear and standardized format. All modules may be modified to fit the unique education and response needs of the facility. This course concludes with a table top exercise which will bring all of the components together for ease of understanding.
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AFSS will work with your facility to coordinate an exercise based on the goals and objectives of your agency. Exercises can be designed to test decontamination practices, medical surge, incident command, emergency planning or any combination. AFSS will provide you with the equipment and personnel needed to create a realistic scenario and if necessary we can hire victim actors to provide your agency with enough "victims" to test your medical surge capabilities along with your decontamination capabilities. AFSS will work with area agencies of your choosing in order to include them in the exercise in a role that would be realistic to them.
