You are here: Welcome » Emergency Management
Print this page

Emergency Management

Curent Status: Normal


Welcome to the Grays Harbor Community Hospital Emergency Management web page. Our page was developed as a communication tool for our staff as well as our community during an emergency.

 

NOTICE: The 2009 Grays Harbor County All Hazards Guide is currently available through the Grays Harbor County Emergency Management Website.

Information:
When there is information regarding a current weather event or other emergency event, you will find updated information here.
There is currently no Emergency Management Event.

 You can view available informational links at the bottom of this page

Hospitals Are Not Shelters

Please remember, first and foremost, our hospital is an acute care facility providing healthcare for patients. As such, the hospital's resources are already committed to those who need them most, and the hospital is not equipped to act as a shelter during a disaster. If sheltering is needed, please contact the Grays Harbor County Emergency Management Office at 360-249-3911.

 

Grays Harbor Community Hospital's Emergency Management Team meets monthly to work on better preparing our hospital and staff in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. The Emergency Management Team creates policies, and procedures using the following four aspects of Emergency Management:


 

Preparedness

Planning, establishing procedures and preparing the facility for any emergency situation.

Mitigation

Identifying hazards or risks for emergency situations or disasters in the hospital and region and doing what can be done to reduce the risk for damage by these hazards.

Response

Planning and testing the hospital's disaster response at least twice a year utilizing a potentially high-risk scenario to test the emergency response plans.

Recovery

Planning how the hospital would recover from a disaster situation and continue to serve the community while going through the event.



In order to better respond in an emergency or disaster situation that might involve the influx of a large number of casualties, Grays Harbor Community Hospital would activate its external triage procedures. This may include many of the following emergency responsibility or services:

 

Decontamination Response Team (DRT)

In the event of chemical exposure or other hazardous material exposure, portable decontamination systems have been supplied to Grays Harbor Community Hospital by federal grants and staffed with individuals who have received special training in site management, decontamination procedures, system usage. Those exposed to any hazardous materials will be routed to this area for decontamination prior to entering the hospital.

Hospital Command Center

The overall direction of facilities operations in the disaster would be managed through this center and the administrative-designated commander. Management of communications, key internal resources, information regarding surge capacity, personnel and medical staff resources, occupancy of buildings and other key resource decisions would be under this center.

Patient triage station

The emergency department and the admitting department would triage, register and maintain tracking information on patients.

Labor pool

Staff reports to the announced location of this pool in order to act as runners, helpers, and transporters of resources, information and communication as needed by the direction of incident command.

Media control center

The public information officer would establish a location and be in continuous communication with incident command and patient triage center in order to provide accurate information about the emergency, patients/casualties to the media.

Visitor control center

Set-up in a designated location, usually in the Cafe or outside the emergency department. Social services will provide a space for visitors and family to congregate away from patient care areas and to provide updates to families and significant others. Chaplains will be available also.

 

Links to More Information:

Local Links

 

Preparedness

 

River Gauges

To find the forecast of the river that you live by or work closest to during a flood please go to this link:

 

Tsunami Evacuation Maps

 

Weather