If your medical facility is within 50 miles of a highway, interstate, airport, railroad tracks, or port, you are at risk for receiving patients contaminated by a hazardous material. In addition, the threat of terrorist activities has prompted a nation-wide effort to prepare local communities to train, prepare, and respond to threats and incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. (WMD) As prehospital care providers, and ire and law enforcement agencies are preparing for hazmat and WMD events, hospitals must be equally prepared.

Recent data indicates that only 18% of contaminated victims remain on the scene awaiting prehospital care. The majority will self transport and walk in the front door of a hospital emergency department seeking decontamination treatment. Is your facility prepared for this? Is your staff prepared for this? A contaminated patient or patients walking into an emergency department without prior notification can result in having to lock down your facility. Being caught unprepared could potentially jeopardize the health and safety of the patient, the hospital staff, and the facility itself.

The Special Operations Response Team (SORT) has been involved in hospital hazmat educational programs and consultation since 1978. SORT's experienced staff can visit your facility and conduct an "on-site" evaluation of your written procedural plans, decontamination equipment, and staff training program. After analyzing your protocols, SORT can provide both written recommendations and any necessary training to hospital personnel to assist you in assuring that your hospital is prepared to adequately handle the challenge of dealing with a hazmat or or a WMD event.

  Areas reviewed in the analysis and recommendations process include: