Emergency Preparedness Coordinating Council Meeting Held
At the Aug. 14th Emergency Preparedness Coordinating Council meeting, the Department of Health (DOH) presented a draft policy relating to hospital and long term care facility patient coordination during coastal emergencies in New York City (NYC). The Department is weaving COVID-19-related practices and protocols throughout current emergency planning to protect patients and staff. When patient evacuations due to storm surges in the NYC metropolitan area are necessary, hospitals and facilities will likely need to move patients according to COVID-19-positive, presumed positive, and negative cohorts. Transporting the three different cohorts will require pre-planning transport and disinfection between transports as well.
These protocols will require additional facilities to sign on to admit patients and may involve the use of facilities further north into the Hudson Valley. DOH will likely be looking for alternate care facilities out of the evacuation zone to demonstrate isolation capacity. The planning process will also consider availability of staff and data sharing between facilities. DOH will be considering potential sites and may push out personal protective equipment (PPE) for COVID-19-positive and presumed positive patients to these facilities. Policies that would enable transfer of COVID-19-positive and presumed positive patients to different facilities are under development. To assist with the task of matching facilities when patients have to be evacuated outside of a storm or surge zone, the Continuing Care Leadership Coalition (CCLC) will be working with the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) to provide NYC nursing homes with access to the Sit Stat system.
The meeting concluded with DOH's mention of its pandemic plan guidance, which will be released soon, along with a webinar. LeadingAge NY will keep members abreast of the developing policies and protocols referenced in this update.
Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-929-9342