Supporting Hospital Staff Utilizing ESAR-VHP Assets: A Plan under Development

What’s the Problem? During a mass casualty event hospitals may require additional resources to properly attend to patients. Volunteers may be called upon to assist emergency staff in meeting the needs of these patients locally, statewide or even nationally. In the past, hospitals have found it difficult to use volunteers efficiently because of the requirement to verify a volunteer health professional’s credentials prior to accepting their assistance.

What’s the Solution? The Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals

History of ESAR-VHP Mandated by Public Law and funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services All states were ordered to develop and operate an ESAR-VHP system that: – Registers health volunteers – Verifies the identity, credentials, and qualifications of volunteers in an emergency

ESAR-VHP Systems States can tailor the system to meet their specific needs but the system must be compatible with those of other states to ensure a reliable nationwide system of mutual aid.

Goals of ESAR-VHP Ensure an adequate & competent volunteer force Enable efficient & effective emergency operations Allow sharing of volunteers across state lines Establish clear protections for volunteers, hospitals and others

The tool used by DHEC Emergency Preparedness Personnel to verify credentials in advance to meet the needs of our citizens during emergencies

Caveats Registration does not obligate a volunteer to serve. You do not have to be a health professional to volunteer. If an event requiring volunteer assistance occurs, appropriate public health officials will use SCSERV to generate a list of potential volunteers, based on skills and skill levels, and other information provided during registration in SCSERV. Those listed will be contacted and given information regarding the event, including where to report, and will be given the opportunity to accept or decline service as a volunteer.

Medical Reserve Corps Founded in 2002 by President Bush Is a partner program of Citizen Corps, a national network of volunteers dedicated to ensuring hometown security MRC units are community-based and function as a way to organize and utilize volunteers Volunteers supplement existing local emergency and public health resources

MRC Volunteers May include: – medical and public health professionals such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, and epidemiologists – others such as interpreters, chaplains, ham radio operators, office workers and legal advisors

MRC Units Train and participate in exercises to increase skills and maintain readiness May be asked to assist in public health emergencies and in non-emergency public health initiatives such as: – Flu clinics – Health fairs – Health education opportunities – Community emergency preparedness activities

MRC Units in South Carolina

So What’s the Problem? The focus on all these volunteer efforts has been on public health. The SCSERV database was developed to recruit and register volunteers for public health, not hospitals. We weren’t even certain what hospitals needed and what were the barriers to getting there!

…and the Solution????? The A cute C are H ospital E mergency S urge Project

Focus of ACHES Project I.Goal Expand SC ESAR-VHP to facilitate SC acute care hospitals’ ability to utilize ESAR-VHP/MRC volunteers to increase hospital surge capacity II.Objectives Identify and address surge capacity needs of: 1) acute care hospitals 2) individual volunteers 3) the ESAR-VHP database system III.Outcome Registered volunteers verified, credentialed, and prepared to augment individual hospital surge capacity

What We Have Accomplished Year 1 (09/01/2010 – 06/30/2011) 1.Convene a representative group from acute care hospitals to identify hospitals’ issues and needs 2.By May 1, 2011, establish working groups to address issues, develop protocols/procedures, and to meet training needs

What We Need to Accomplish Year 2 (07/01/2011 – 06/30/2012) 1.By 09/01/2011, establish Advisory Committee to provide direction and focus to workgroups 2.By 12/01/11: develop: – a training needs assessment – a training plan based on the needs assessment

ACHES into the Final Year Year 3 (07/01/2012 – 06/30/2013) 1.Provide surge capacity to acute care hospitals during exercises and real emergencies 2.Incorporate acute care hospital surge needs into the design of SCSERV

Barriers to Hospitals Using Volunteers Even if credentialing occurs through SCSERV, privileging must be done by the hospital. Volunteers called out and used by SCDHEC are provided with professional liability protection; this is not the case for those providing surge capacity to hospitals. Volunteers called out and used by SCDHEC are not covered by Workers’ Compensation. What about those assisting hospitals?

Barriers to Hospitals Using Volunteers Vaccinations and other health requirements and documentation vary hospital to hospital and from those required through SCSERV. The disciplines and skills sets needed to assist hospitals are different from those needed by public health. The SC Medical Association is recruiting physicians to assist with emergencies--how can this information be shared with SCSERV?

Three Workgroups in Year 2 to Tackle Barriers The Training Workgroup will assess training needs, develop the training plan for hospital volunteers, and help plan the annual conference. The Professional Liability & Workers’ Comp for Hospital Volunteers Workgroup will develop guidance for hospitals to adapt/adopt to address liability and injury protections for volunteers serving during emergencies. The ACHES Credentialing through SCSERV Workgroup will determine information needing to be collected in SCSERV in order for volunteers to be rapidly called up and incorporated into a hospital response during emergencies.

Open Enrollment for Workgroups If you would like to help with any of the three workgroups, please contact Jane Richter at or Initial workgroup meetings are scheduled to begin this month and will be held at the USC Center for Public Health Preparedness in downtown Columbia. Mileage will be reimbursed and lunch is provided. Please volunteer to help with these important tasks!

Thank you!