Lessons Learned from TOPOFF 3

Horizon Health Center Jersey City, NJ All Grantees Meeting 2005 Presented by:Marilyn Cintron

Our History
1963 began as a family planning clinic run out of a church 1993 became an FQHC look alike 1999 became a section 330e funded program 2002 expanded into a second site 2003 Received JCAHO accreditation Collaborated with NJPCA for Disaster Preparedness.

TOPOFF 3
Horizon participated in NJPCAs Disaster Preparedness under the direction of Miriam Cohen We linked with county efforts and the New Jersey Hospital Association Participated in the planning process on a county and state level Received training coordinated by NJPCA Trained staff and collaborated with North Hudson Community Health Center in planning the exercise and conducting a drill prior to Play

TOPOFF 3
We were contacted by HRSA and NJPCA about formally volunteering to participate as a JCAHO accredited health center Participated in conference calls with Capt. Braden and Amy Chanlongbutra from BPHC Division of Quality Management as well as Laura McNally, George Smith, and Van Morfit from HRSA.

What Went Right

NJPCA was very helpful with getting information to Horizon quickly Horizon had direct lines of communication with BPHC and HRSA North Hudson and Horizon worked closely on this project Horizon was able to get the NJ Hospital Association to provide information and materials for play

What Went Right

Horizon was able to test our systems of security, incident command and communications Staff became more aware of need and rationale for policies for Bioterrorism Preparedness at the health center level Succeeded in processing patients, while addressing injects during play

What Went Wrong

During the county meetings and Statewide meetings the health centers seemed to be an afterthought Communication with the outside world was very limited Internal communications needed improvement Incident commander went right into doer role

What Went Wrong

HR did not have family plans set up for easy mass prophylaxis Communication from the outside world to us was non-existent We created our own injects Internal supplies were not coordinated according to policy

Lessons Learned
Communicate, communicate, communicate Have clear policies with roles rather than names Train doers to delegate Front Desk is key! Drills are extremely valuable to truly test your system In an emergency staff really come through