Hospitals working on disaster plans

By Beverly A. Carroll

Staff Writer

Matthew Crumpton said some people are frightened when they hear that Hamilton Medical Center is preparing for a pandemic flu outbreak.

"We have to take it seriously," Mr. Crumpton, trauma and emergency coordinator for Hamilton Medical Center, said.

"I always tell groups that if you are prepared for a flu pandemic, you are prepared for any emergency," Mr. Crumpton said, citing the 1990 automobile crash on Interstate 75 that involved 99 cars, left 11 people dead and 50 injured after heavy fog obscured the area.

Hamilton Medical Center is the emergency planning hub for six counties -- Cherokee, Fannin, Gilmer, Murray, Pickens and Whitfield. The Dalton hospital emergency management personnel help hospitals and health care workers in those counties develop preparedness plans, Mr. Crumpton said.

Last month, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced that the federal government awarded the state $2 million dollars to help strengthen Georgia's capacity to respond to a pandemic influenza outbreak, according to a statement from his office.

"Because a potential flu pandemic is an alarming scenario that we are determined to guard against, it is important that we recognize the potential threat and plan to the best of our ability," Gov. Perdue said in a statement.

The plan involves coordinating multiple emergency management, law and fire agencies, industries and governments. The focus is planning for a surge in the event of an contagious flu outbreak or a bioterrorism attack or natural disasters on the scale of Hurricane Katrina.

There have been two severe flu epidemics in the U.S. since the 1950s, according to Mr. Crumpton.

"In 1968, the flu killed nearly 50,000 people in three weeks," Mr. Crumpton said. "The average death rate per year then was around 30,000 people (from illnesses). Imagine what a pandemic could do."

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2.7 million Georgians may become ill during a worst-case pandemic and as many as 297,000 would die. Most vulnerable are the elderly, young children and those with weakened immune systems. But a pandemic could kill many otherwise healthy adults, Mr. Crumpton said.

The most important piece of this plan is for people to realize that in the event of large scale event such as a Katrina or a flu pandemic, people will be on their own, said Ron Hernandez, an EMP-Paramedica, and director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness for the North Georgia Health district.

"The starting point of all this planning is the individual in the home," Mr. Hernandez said. "People cannot be sitting in homes waiting for the government to come.... We will be overwhelmed. There will be no help coming if there is a flu pandemic or bioterrorist attack."

The plan, called the surge plan, identifies areas where patients can be taken once all hospital beds are full. Schools, churches, auditoriums and other large facilities will be sites used for patient overflow.

Mr. Crumpton won a grant to purchase PODS -- portable locker-like containers that hold almost everything needed to set up a hospital room, from patient gowns, urinals, stethoscopes and room dividers to receptacles for used hypodermics.

In addition to emergency agencies, local industries like Shaw and have representatives involved with the planning, Mr. Crumpton said.

"In the event of a flu pandemics, a lot of their employees would be out sick. They would have space for surge beds," he said. "And they have nurses in their employment would be of help with their employees and other people."

The plan will undergo test early next year, when officials are planning a drill. Plan coordinators are scheduled to meet in October to set a date and location.

E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com