- Co-Chair (US) – Wayne Turnberg (WA)
- Co-Chair (CA) – Garnet Matchett (SK)
- British Columbia - Shawn Carby
- Washington – Chris Williams
Workgroup Leads /
- Emergency Management –Dan Banks(US)
- Epidemiology–Mike Boysen (US)
- PH Laboratory - Mohamed Morshed (CA)
- PH Law - Joyce Roper (US)
- Medical Clinical Surge - Sally Abbott (US)
Liaison Members /
- PHAC (Western Region) Yvette Lebrun-Campbell and Caitlin McGuire
- US HHS Region X - Andy Stevermer
Core Jurisdictions Absent /
- Alaska
- Idaho
- Montana
- Oregon
- Yukon
Secretariat /
- Wayne Dauphinee, Executive Director
- Gail Andersen, Director Cross Border Workshop
- Carrie McGee, Administrative Assistant
1. Welcome & Introduction
Presiding Co-Chair, Garnet Matchett, welcomed participants noting that only three jurisdictions were represented thus there wasNOT a quorum should a formal vote be required.
2. Agenda
Executive Director,Wayne Dauphineepresented the agenda, which was adopted as presented.
3. SummaryRecord –October 10, 2013 Meeting
Wayne D.briefly reviewed theSummary Recordfrom the Oct 10, 2013, teleconference noting that no corrections or amendments had been requested. He did however indicate that the following action items remained outstanding and would be addressed under an appropriate agenda items:
•Secretariat to reach out to the public and environmental health communities to assess interest
•JCC members are requested to consider the proposed initiatives with a view to meaningful discussion on the next teleconference.
•Working Groups are requested to designate a point person for the Workshop Tiger Team.
Decision: Summary Record adopted as presented.
4. Jurisdiction and Working Group Updates
Jurisdictions
British Columbia - Shawn Carby reported that BC and WA conducted a successful TTX at the Justice Institute. The exercise focused on communication both operational and risk utilizing two outbreak scenarios measles and MERSA. The exercise produced so valuable lessons learned and will pave the way for a future exercise involving all PNW partners. Shawn also indicated that BC would be conducting a pandemic focused exercise in February 2014. Lastly he advised that he would be heading to the Philippians for two weeks as part of a Global Medic response team – meeting participants wished him a safe return
Saskatchewan- Garnet reported that SK was continuing to compile the post exercisereport and lessons learned from Exercise Domino which would be shared when completed. He also reported that the provincial laboratory would be undergoing a resiliency assessment following Level 3 certification. Garnet indicated that the SK health emergency notification system was becoming operational.
Washington – Chris Williams reported that Gail (Zimmerman) Andersen would be return to DOH in December to undertake her longstanding role as the Cross Border Workshop Director. He also indicated that he was in discussion with Mike Harryman regarding the 2014 Workshop and the possibility of hosting in Portland.
PHAC (Western Region)- Caitlin (Harrison) McGuire reported that her office had participated in the aforementioned BC-WA TTX noting that PHAC was very supportive of regional exercises. She also indicated that the office was working with Alberta on the revision/updating of their provincial pandemic plan. She also indicated that she had been invited by HHS (Region X) to join them for Ex Alaska Shield in the Spring 2014.
Working Groups
Emergency Management(EM)- Dan Banks reported that the annual duty officer communication exercise was scheduled for December 4, 2013,
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) - Wayne Dreported on behalf of the EMS leads that solid progress was being made in developing MOUs between frontline service providers based on the cross border movement guidelines.
Epidemiology & Surveillance–Mike Boysenadvised the group were working on a reference list for jurisdictions providing contact information and reportable disease requirements.
PH Law -Joyce Roper reported that she was in the process of reviewing US District Court decision finding that New York City emergency plans do not adequately address the needs of the disabled. Joyce indicated that a similar law suit was before the courts in California. A copy of the decision is available from the Secretariat on request.
Clinical Medical Surge - Sally Abbott advised thatshe had meet with HEMBC staff regarding expanding collaboration among hospital/health system entities with respect to addressing post disaster surge.
PH Laboratory- Morshed reported that the working group was continuing its dialogue with federal partners regarding the cross border movement of specimens and reagents.
Secretariat
Further to the outstanding action items Wayne D requested that jurisdictions canvas their public and environmental health communities to determine interest in pursuing a regional collaboration. Garnet suggested that jurisdictions also explore interest in pursuing regional collaboration on disaster psychosocial services. If sufficient interest is shown Secretariat will facilitate virtual focus groups to further discussion.
Action: Jurisdictions to action as requested and advise Secretariat
5. 2014 Initiatives
Wayne D reiterated the needed to finalize its 2013-14 work plan and requested members consider which if any of the following merits PNWBHA attention.
- Community health resilience
- Health system (infrastructure/ interdependencies) resilience
- Environmental/public health impacts of disasters and hazardous material events
- Integrated pan-border catastrophic events response strategy
- Regional risk register
- Managing mass contaminated patients at acute care centre.
- Interim medical treatment facilities - best practices
Action: Members to action as requested and advise Secretariat
6. PAHO Initiative
Wayne D provided a brief update on a proposal for the PNW to host a PAHO hemispheric indigenous people’s consultation on disaster risk reduction. Two meetings have been held to determine 1) interest and 2) who, how and where best to host. There appears to be interest among Tribal and First Nations groups to host and a focused discussion by the key proponents is scheduled for the week November 19.Wayne indicated this would be a great opportunity to gain visibility for both PNWBHA and the work being done in the PNW in respect indigenous peoples and emergency preparedness.
7. 2014 Cross Border Workshop
Wayne D advised that.two PNWBHA alumni, John Erickson and Amy Sheridan, have indicated willingness to assist in CBW2014 planning. Wayne went on to propose the following as a start point for 2014 planning:
- Theme: Disaster Response and Recovery: Are We Ready?
- Focus: Mutual Assistance. This is an area which is under address by all border entities (Emergency Management and Health) and is a component of BTB being pursued at the federal (PHAC-HHS) level
- Working Groups to identify key response and recovery issues/gaps relative to their functional area
- Day 1 Working Group functional sessions discussion to address identified issues/gaps
- Day 2 plenary and breakout session to focus on various aspect of disaster response and recovery mutual assistance, including: specialized team, e.g. public /environmental health, disaster psychosocial response, deployment; licensing and liability;compensation & benefits; sharing medical countermeasures/ regulated pharmaceuticals; patient transfer, etc.
- All activities work toward a Table Top Exercise (TTX) and Hot Wash on Day 3. TTX to be developed:around a catastrophic natural disaster, i.e. earthquake or dam failure; and be designed to permit remote/virtual participation.
- Representatives from other pan-border EM and health entities be invited to attend and/or participate, e.g. PNEMA
Action:
- JCC member are requested to indicate concurrence with or comments on the above as soon as possible as a decision isrequired NTL the December 12 JCC teleconference to permit detailed planning to begin; and
- Working Group leads are requested to designate a point person for the Workshop Tiger Team.
8. Concluding Remarks
The Co-Chairsthanked those present for their participation in the call and advised that the next regular monthly teleconference is scheduled for December 12, 2013.
Prepared by: Wayne Dauphinee, Executive Director PNWBHA
APPROVED:
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