Dr. Mark Kirk demonstrates equipment used for personal protection during hazmat emergencies.

We believe in planning for disasters by using some basic disaster medicine principles.  These are outlined in detail in Auf der Heide: Disaster Response: Principles of Preparation and Response.

1)     Learn from past disasters.
Disaster planning must anticipate and plan for recurring difficulties that studies identified in past disasters.

2)     Communication during a disaster is often inadequate. 
Disasters pose unusual demands for coordination between organizations. For this reason, a substantial portion of disaster communications problems are related to the exchange of information among organizations.  The Poison Center’s ability to acquire and disseminate information in a crisis makes it a critical information resource.

3)     For disaster planning to be effective, it must be inter-organizational. 
The typical response to a disaster includes multiple independent organizations from the private sector as well as from agencies of city, county, state, federal, and special district governments. Often, they have planned independently and end up responding that way, with little grasp of how each fits into the overall response.  In contrast to most routine emergencies, disasters introduce the need for multi-organizational and multi-disciplinary coordination.  The regional poison center is uniquely positioned to bridge many of these organizations together during a crisis.  We want to continue to build relationships with agencies so that we improve our day-to-day responses to problems, such as food born illnesses or rabies exposures.  According to Dr Auf der Heide, “Those who work together well on a daily basis tend to work together well in disasters.”

4)     Base disaster plans on what people are likely to do rather than what they should do.
During a crisis, people (victims, worried-well, first responders, and health care providers) will look toward familiar and trustworthy resources for information and guidance.  Even for events not considered “poisoning”, people seek advice from the regional poison centers.  For example, the Blue Ridge Poison Center received over 75 calls in the weeks following the anthrax attacks in 2001.  We want to improve our capabilities for what people are likely to do.

5)     Rely on local resources for up to 72 hours after a disaster. Our goal is to provide practical and accurate health care information to clinicians during the early phases of a disaster (hours to days).  We will continue to be an information hub to assist state and federal agencies to distribute information.  Ideally, we strive to disseminate “best available information” before the first patient arrives to a treatment facility.  We want clinicians to have the best available information, at the moment they need it, to make critical decisions about patient care. 

6)     Strive for “Single-Voice” messages for the media and public
Chaos, panic, confusion and fear will occur in large disasters, especially related to terrorist acts.  Coordinating health information released to the public creates an image of being in control.  Conflicting messages create an opposite reaction that leads to greater anxiety, fear and even mistrust in the leadership of the disaster response.  The poison center would like to be a team player in sending a coordinated message to the public and media.  By building relationships with other organizations, we can create messages regarding chemical health-related questions and provide our services to other agencies for disseminating information during incidents requiring their expertise.

7)     Make Preparedness Adaptable to a Wide Variety of Circumstances
Whenever possible, it is advantageous to adapt disaster procedures for use in daily, routine emergencies.  Although it is not possible to prepare for every disaster contingency there are some problems that occur with such regularity as to be quite predictable. It is these that are the most amenable to planning. For example, almost every major disaster requires procedures for the centralized gathering and sharing of information about the overall disaster situation and the responding and available resources.  This idea of focusing on "generic" disaster tasks most likely to be faced in all types of disasters has been embodied in the concept of "comprehensive emergency management" which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has used in its "Integrated Emergency Management System".