Oroville, CA ̶ Nine members of Oroville Hospital’s staff departed on August 11, 2013 for Anniston Alabama to participate in the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) training in the fields of Emergency Preparedness. These staff members spent five intensive days training for incidents that may have an impact on our community and its ability to provide healthcare in the event of a mass casualty incident. Six members of the group focused on Healthcare Leadership in Mass Casualty Incidents (HCL) and three members concentrated on Hospital Emergency Response Training for Mass Casualty Incidents (HERT).
HCL training provides healthcare responders with an opportunity to address realistic decisions in response to a mass casualty event. This exercise based course is taught in the nation’s only hospital facility dedicated exclusively to training. This training will enable Oroville Hospital to manage a wide variety of incidents with cohesive plans and management to care for the community in the event of a disaster.
HERT training prepares healthcare agencies to conduct safe and effective emergency medical responses to a large incident that may involve hazardous chemical contamination or triage to treat multiple victims arriving at the hospital for care.
This training helps to fine tune the hospital’s response to all-hazards, natural or man-made, events so they may serve the community in its time of need. Oroville Hospital also works closely with Butte County Public Health, all area hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, and skilled nursing facilities to plan for a coordinated response to events that may impact the county.
The CDP is operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and is the only federally-chartered Weapons of Mass Destruction training facility in the nation. The CDP develops and delivers advanced training for emergency response providers, emergency managers, and other government officials from state, local, and tribal governments. The CDP offers more than 40 training courses focusing on incident management, mass casualty response, and emergency response to a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist act.