The exercise simulated an intentional infectious disease mass casualty event. Also included in the exercise was the establishment of a community-based Acute Care Center (ACC) at Dartmouth College's Leverone Field House in the town of Hanover. This was to simulate a community-based hospital surge capacity facility. The exercise tested real-time field status tracking management software from Augusta, Ga.,-based Global Emergency Resources, LLC. The software, HC Standard, was used to input, track and manage patient status and metrics in a real-time, Web-based, and GIS-enabled environment.
The Web-based application was used during the exercise to track and triage 50 patients at both the hospital and the Acute Care Center (ACC) using the latest generation handheld devices and custom imagery. The critical information was gathered and relayed to the system in real time from the field where it was available for immediate use by the hospital Emergency Operation Center "EOC" staffers and other decision makers and care-givers.
HC Standard was also utilized to demonstrate the mass distribution of critical medications and supplies from a Strategic Nation Stockpile Point of Distribution (SNS-POD) Center, as might occur during a pandemic flu or other mass-casualty event. This field-based status tracking and management system instantaneously relayed inventory and status information back to the EOC and to other participating agencies where they were better able to define and respond to their surge capacity needs and decision support alternatives.
"During Hurricane Katrina the nation lacked any patient tracking or centralized data gathering capabilities. This severely inhibited our ability to monitor the impact of the event and ensure all patients were adequately treated and complete medical cost was obtained," said Dr. Robert Gougelet, medical director emergency response, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and program director for the NNE-MMRS. "HC Standard provided a very portable and flexible architecture that we used during the drill to adapt to the rapidly changing scenario during our emergency medical response; this capability will be of particular importance in the event that we are faced with a truly pandemic event.
"One pre-exercise test of the system allowed for a subject to be scanned on a handheld device located in Miami, with the information pertaining to that casualty (including a photograph) appearing on the New Hampshire HC Standard site a few seconds later for viewing on the master patient-tracking matrix. Keeping in mind the fact that the exercise database was hosted in Augusta, this effectively showed how the entire Eastern Seaboard could be involved in sharing vital data related to multiple jurisdictions during a widespread outbreak or emergency."
