Emergency Medical Services Better Together (Continued from page 19)
and mobile medical team to deploy for disasters. We have exercised our plans in artificial and real event scenarios such as: the bridge collapse where some partner hospitals were surged; received patients from H1N1 where we coordinated messages and policies on visitation; and supply chain shortages such as the most recent saline shortage. The metropolitan region is one of eight health care regions in the state with similar preparedness frameworks. The Minnesota Department of Health uses this health care preparedness framework to distribute federal preparedness grants such as the Healthcare Preparedness Program (HPP) Grant which is managed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). Federal grants such as these have advanced hospital preparedness since 2002. As preparedness grant funding shrinks, as it is projected to do, the framework we have established should allow us to continue coordination and planning with our partners. Our community expects health care to continue during disaster and FEMA has designated us as critical infrastructure. If you are not a member of the Metropolitan Hospital Compact or want to learn more about our coalition, please visit our website at www.metrohealthready.org or email us at prepared@metrohealthready. org. Katherine Grimm manages the Emergency Management program for Maple Grove Hospital in Maple Grove, Minnesota and North Memorial Healthcare in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. She has worked in the field of hospital emergency management for over nine years. She is currently Chair of the Minneapolis/ St Paul Metropolitan Hospital Compact, serves on a variety of community emergency preparedness committees and is a member of Minnesota’s type 3 all-hazards incident management team. Katherine is a state-certified emergency manager, received her Masters of Public Health Degree from the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health in Minneapolis and is a Ph.D. candidate in that program. She can be reached at: Katherine. Grimm@MapleGroveHospital.org. 20
May/June 2014
MetroDoctors
The Journal of the Twin Cities Medical Society