Certifying Your Emergency Preparedness

Have you ever looked for something that just wasn’t available? Several years ago I did and found nothing, so I created what was lacking.

What I was in search of was some form of healthcare emergency management or healthcare emergency preparedness certificate program. Having found nothing I took the initiative and with the assistance of the Butler County (PA) Community College created the Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Certificate program.

Previously, there were a few “weekend” programs and two separate degrees in this area, but for the time and expense nothing fell squarely in the middle.

This new program takes place over nine months in an online classroom, featuring instructors from across the U.S. It is a non-credit program; however, it can be used for professional development. The Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Certificate (HEPC) program is designed for any personnel who have roles in hospital and healthcare emergency preparedness planning, response and recovery; those who have roles in municipal or general emergency preparedness; and for anyone who has an interest in this field of study.

Examples of potential students include: hospital administrators, physicians, nurses, prehospital personnel, nursing home administrators, municipal managers, emergency managers, public health administrators, law enforcement, firefighters and any ancillary healthcare personnel.

The program will cover topics such as emergency preparedness, CBRNE, TQM in exercise design, alternate care facilities, the legal aspects of healthcare emergency preparedness and more.

The course consists of 10 classes. Each class lasts four weeks and will include discussion threads, as well as essays, projects and online networking. Nine classes will be facilitated by instructors online and the 10th class will be held at Butler County Community College utilizing the advanced disaster management simulation (ADMS) system. The 10 classes are:

1. Hospital Emergency Preparedness, Part 1
2. Hospital Emergency Preparedness, Part 2
3. Healthcare Communications and Information Technology
4. Leadership in All-Hazards Planning
5. Healthcare and Public Safety Collaboration
6. Public Health and Pandemic Planning
7. Evacuation/AFC and Sheltering Considerations
8. Legal and Ethical Issues
9. TQM in Exercise Design
10. ADMS Capstone/Graduation at the Butler County Community College (BC3) public safety training facility.

In order to establish a baseline level of understanding, prerequisites for the HEPC, are the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Incident Command System (ICS) courses. If the student has not completed the NIMS courses, he will be required to complete them prior to the completion of Hospital Emergency Preparedness Parts 1 and 2.

As an additional learning opportunity, students will receive certification in core disaster life support (CDLS) from the National Disaster Life Support Foundation (NDLSF) when completing that course during Hospital Emergency Preparedness, Part 2.

The 10th class consists of the resident portion of the program and uses the advanced disaster management simulation (ADMS) system to bring all of the knowledge from the course together. The 10th class will also be dedicated to the students in the course. There will be a dinner meeting the first evening with guest speakers, followed by eight hours of ADMS “play” the next day. The final half day will see students participate in the graduation ceremony and course evaluation.

The initial class is set to begin January 9, 2012. Course size is limited to 15 students with a total cost of $3,599, not including travel and accommodations for out of state students attending the final class. Interested individuals may take the classes separately; however, those individuals are not eligible to take the 10th class or receive the program certificate.

Registration is already underway. Contact Terry Lonchena at Terrence.lonchena@bc3.edu or 724/287-8711 ext. 8049.