CAEP 2021 disaster track lectures

Jared Bly
Jun 22, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Aug 7, 2021

The following lectures took place at the CAEP21 virtual conference. The sessions are recorded and available to registrants in case they missed the original webcast.

(How a much smaller country with a socialised health care system like Canada is doing so much better with COVID)

'Lend a shoulder' COVID vaccination in Israel (Odeda BENIN GOREN, RN, phD)

An overview of COVID in Israel and its management -- strategy, statistics, and execution of mass vaccination, while also dealing with violent conflict.

Description: In December 2020, Israel started a mass vaccination operation. By the mid of March 2021 half of Israeli citizens had received the COVID-19 vaccine. Criteria for the vaccination were updated as an ongoing process due to new variants of the COVID-19 virus and accumulated data. The operation is a collaboration between the Ministry of Health and other agencies. This complicated operation will be presented in the lecture Objectives

Major challenges in mass vaccination operation
Coordination and cooperation
Organizational flexibility

Pearls

Information Transparency
Cultural sensitivity
Public trust

(Why no surgeons were needed after the biggest explosion in history)

International medical assistance after Beirut explosion (Johan Von Schreeb, surgeon, WHO global disaster medicine)

A description of a true disaster and the teams that arrived to offer medical assistance. Some great instruction in disaster management principles, including needs being different than resources offered. The few deaths and seriously injured were managed by a strong, though vulnerable, local infrastructure; the surgical teams responding were hardly needed, except to adapt to the ongoing chronic disease management and primary care, and COVID-19 which Lebanon really saw increase after the blast.

Description: Following the 2020 Beirut blast international emergency medical teams were deployed to assist. The WHO set up a coordination cell and the presentation will describe the response and discuss to what extent international trauma care was needed. Objectives

Introduce the WHO led Emergency Medical Teams initiative with classification and standards
The type of needs that must be assessed before deploying international emergency medical teams

Pearl

Significant trauma care capacities exist in many middle income countries

(What if some dude, minding his own business, comes to our ED?)

Civil Unrest (Paul Penn, President of Global Vision Consortium--disaster management)

'Knowledge is power' -- how civil unrest unfolds and how we can prepare as first receivers. Entertaining truths: "...minding my own business..." is always followed by a lie; and the most dangerous person in the world is "some dude." Illustrated with excerpts of the after-action report from Minneapolis and the George Floyd murder and subsequent riots.

Description: This presentation will explore: how civil unrest is similar to and different than traditional hazards (e.g., extreme weather); key aspects and impacts that be anticipated; how to protect occupants (i.e., staff, patients, visitors) and the facility; and practical activities that can be taken prior to, and during, an event to minimize disruption and allow for effective delivery of medical care to all. Objectives

By the end of the presentation, attendees will be able to: Identify challenges and vulnerabilities of healthcare facilities and its occupants following civil unrest
Determine practical activities to prepare the organization for civil unrest using applicable emergency management techniques
Recognize approaches to maximize equitable delivery of healthcare in extra-ordinary circumstances

Pearls

How general emergency management efforts can be applied to events of civil unrest
How civil unrest differs from other hazards
How training, planning, exericsing, and developing relationships can minimize impacts of civil unrest

Stay tuned for summaries of more disaster-relevant CAEP talks, or send us your own.