Developing the State of Connecticut emergency credentialing programme for healthcare professionals
Abstract
The failure of the emergency response system, healthcare delivery organisations and multiple levels of government to work together to provide adequate medical response during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrates the need to develop a coordinated and national approach to recruiting, pre-qualifying and credentialing healthcare professionals who are willing to volunteer during a large-scale disaster or public health emergency. Inadequately prepared to continue normal operations in the face of the enormity of the Gulf Coast disaster, which destroyed or disabled hospitals and other vital infrastructure, in addition to generating large numbers of patients, individual healthcare organisations in the Gulf Coast region had no hope of expanding their personnel surge capability and operational capacity. Public health and infectious disease clinical experts continue to express concern over predictions that the next influenza pandemic could affect 15–40 per cent of the US population through hospitalisations and outpatient visits. Hospital emergency management plans should therefore include a strategy for the integration of volunteer healthcare personnel who are prepared to assist with meeting the challenges of a sudden surge in patient volume.
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Author's Biography
James L. Paturas is Director of the Yale New Haven Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response (YNH-CEPDR). He also serves as Director of the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization Collaborating Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response and the Connecticut Center of Excellence for Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response at Yale New Haven Health System. Mr Paturas received his master’s in public administration, with a concentration on organisational leadership, from Norwich University and is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Executive Leadership Education Program.
Elaine Forte is the Deputy Director of Operations for the Yale New Haven Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response. She has more than 25 years of project management experience, including evaluation, development and implementation of IT systems; laboratory facility design; and development and delivery of emergency preparedness education and training and surge capacity initiatives. Ms Forte provides administrative direction for the statewide Emergency System for the Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals programme, the New England Partnership for Healthcare Emergency Response Education and Training and the National Alliance for Training HealthCare for Emergency Response. Ms Forte also directs activities undertaken by the National Center for Integrated Civilian-Military Domestic Disaster Medical Response. Ms Forte is a member of both the American Association of Clinical Chemistry and the Clinical Laboratory Management Association.
Citation
Luddy, Carol, Paturas, James L. and Forte, Elaine (2007, January 1). Developing the State of Connecticut emergency credentialing programme for healthcare professionals. In the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, Volume 1, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.69554/JIYI7933.
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