VHASS Patient Tracking Overview Regional Healthcare Coordination Center

About the Coalition… Central Virginia Healthcare Coalition Healthcare Emergency Management Alliance 17 Acute Care Hospitals 4 Free-standing Emergency Departments Long Term Care Facilities Fire/EMS/Emergency Management Stakeholders Exists to organize a regional healthcare preparedness program Response Recovery

Central Region

Other Regional Coalitions

Regional Healthcare Coordination Center (RHCC) Model Overview All six healthcare coalitions operate a primary & backup Regional Healthcare Coordination Center (RHCC) Written into the COV EOP Statewide Hospital Emergency Operations Plan Statewide Health & Medical Surge Plan (Annex J) RHCC is a multi-agency emergency coordination center. Responsible for emergency coordination of healthcare facility assets in the region. Responsible for activation of the Regional Hospital Emergency Operations Plan.

RHCC Model Overview, contd. RHCC facilitates emergency response, communication, and resource allocation for coalition members. RHCC accomplishes this as the primary regional contact among: Regional healthcare facilities (Hospitals and Long Term Care) Other five RHCCs State EOC through the ESF 8 (Public Health) annex. Provide coalition stakeholders with: Healthcare Intelligence Incident coordination Disaster resource management

Primary Central Virginia RHCC

Primary Central Virginia RHCC

The Importance of Family Reunification Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Rita Boston Marathon Bombing Virginia Tech Shootings Large-Scale Transportation Accidents Studies have shown that nearly 2/3rds of parents would disregard an evacuation order or shelter-in-place order and go directly to their child’s school or scene of an emergency. When parents are familiar with the emergency reunification plans of their child’s temporary care providers, they are more likely to follow the orders of emergency officials, making everyone safer.

Goals of Patient Tracking Provide continuity of information on the whereabouts of victims in a disaster. Protect PHI

Scenarios for Use MCI Patient Evacuation Planned Event

General Idea Patient gets a number as early as possible. Patient information is populated into the tracking system as early as possible. Searchable patient descriptors/number tracked throughout patient’s journey.

Where are we today? State patient tracking workgroup formed by VHHA. Hospitals and stakeholders were surveyed about importance of patient tracking. Committee investigated best practices. HIPAA-compliant system implemented. Long term evolving plan (data feeds, training, etc.) CMS Regulatory Requirements

Don’t Lose Track Video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BzLUmDBlME

Virginia’s Patient Tracking Program Every hospital in the Commonwealth of Virginia uses the Virginia Healthcare Alerting & Status System (VHASS) to report critical information about the status of their facilities. Information is reported to the RHCC and other emergency response entities across the state. During Mass Casualty Incidents, hospitals enter basic patient information into VHASS. At the request of the RHCC, the 2-1-1 Call Center activates for the “Patient Locator” service. Family members can call 2-1-1, and a trained operator searches the VHASS database for a patient “match”. If a match is found, the caller is provided the hospital’s phone #.

Requesting Activation of 2-1-1 Your hospital may request that the RHCC activate the 211 Patient Locator service if: 1) Your facility has received patients from the scene of an MCI. 2) Your facility is receiving phone calls from individuals trying to locate a patient involved in the MCI. Call the RHCC and request activation of the 2-1-1 Patient Locator service: 1-800-276-0683

VHASS Demo

Click Emergency Operations Page Go to: www.VHHA-MCI.org Enter a vaild username Enter a valid password Click Emergency Operations Page Contact the Regional Healthcare Coordination Center (RHCC) for assistance: 1-800-276-0683

Click “Patient Tracking”

disclaimer by pressing “OK” Acknowledge the HIPAA disclaimer by pressing “OK” Add new patient to tracking system (slide 5). Transfer or check-in existing patients into your facility IF you know their triage tag number (slide 6). List/Search for existing patients at your facility (slide 7)

Add/Track a New Patient Select Confidentiality Status. Select “Live” for an actual event. “Test” for a drill/exercise. Enter in all available PHI & De-identified patient data. Press “Save” when complete.

Questions? Andrew Slater, RHCC Manager 804-251-0429 Andrew.Slater@central-region.org RHCC 24/7 Activation: 1-800-276-0683