Emergency Preparedness Events and Resources

Members are reminded of some upcoming emergency preparedness events and resources:

Emergency Preparedness Drill to Be Conducted in September

The Department of Health (DOH), Office of Health Emergency Preparedness (OHEP) announced that they will be conducting a statewide no-notice Interoperable Communications (IOC) drill sometime in September. The drill can be used to fulfill federal and/or state requirements for agencies to conduct emergency preparedness exercises, for those providers that have such requirements.

Required participants include:

Local health departments
Emergency managers
Emergency medical services

Voluntary participation is open to:

Home care and hospice
Adult care facilities (ACFs)
Community health centers

Because nursing homes and hospitals are being surveyed via the Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) multiple times per week, those surveys will be used to fulfill their drill requirement this year.

To learn more about the drill, you can access a brief pre-recorded webinar here. Please note that it takes a moment for the recording to begin.

eFINDS Training for ACFs and Nursing Homes

DOH is offering one-hour training on the New York State Evacuation of Facilities in Disasters Systems (eFINDS), the patient/resident tracking application housed on the Health Commerce System (HCS). The course will be available on any one of the following dates: Fri., Sept. 25^th from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Tues., Oct. 27^th from 1 to 2 p.m.; Thurs., Nov. 19^th from 10 to 11 a.m.; or Wed., Dec. 16^th from 2 to 3 p.m. Click here for more information and registration.

NYC Emergency Management Medical Surge Staffing GPO

New York City (NYC) Emergency Management has set up a Medical Surge Staffing Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to assist health care facilities with their COVID-19 surge staffing plans. The most current list of participating staffing vendors and additional documents can be found here under “COVID-19 Surge Staffing Group Purchasing Organization (GPO).”

Each facility is responsible for creating their own contract with appropriate staffing vendors. The GPO was set up to assist facilities with their COVID-19 response and will be available until June 2021. Facilities are encouraged to create a contract with the staffing vendors before future waves of COVID-19 and that can be utilized for any staffing shortages. Facilities should make sure to include all staffing titles in their contract, including any non-clinical licenses (e.g., mortuary staff). NYC Emergency Management serves as the vendor manager for the GPO and retains records of the master agreement.

Benefits of the GPO include the following:

Assist NYC health care organizations to establish surge staffing contracts in preparation for COVID-19 resurgence
Create and maintain competitive pay scales to prevent rate inflation during times of crisis/staffing shortages
Ensure that staffing contract terms have appropriate flexibilities for health care organizations given unpredictable crisis circumstances
Ensure that a broad array of health care organizations can work directly with staffing agencies to secure staff meeting their requirements and preferences

The following types of health care facilities* within the five boroughs of NYC are eligible:

General hospitals
Residential health care facilities (RHCFs) or nursing homes
ACFs
Home care providers
Residential treatment programs
Outpatient mental health clinics
Diagnostic and treatment centers and clinics, including Chronic Renal Dialysis Services

* licensed by DOH or the New York State Office of Mental Health

While this notification serves as an introduction to this resource, as updates are made to the staffing vendor list and more information becomes available, further notification will be made and resources will be added here.

Questions can be addressed to HealthMedicalESFList@OEM.NYC.GOV.

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, or Elliott Frost, efrost@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383