In the event of a pandemic or a terrorist attack that causes you, your employees or your family to require medical attention, do you know where you would go for help? The Coweta County Safety Council, a group formed under the auspices of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber, is making sure local businesses are leading the way in preparing for just such emergencies.
Jay Jones, director of Coweta County’s Emergency Management Agency, and Kim Townsend of District 4 Public Health Emergency Preparedness, part of the Georgia Department of Public Health, spoke to the safety council on May 19, 2015, about the plans already in place to serve local citizens in the event of a medical emergency such as a flu outbreak or terrorist attack. Jones noted that many experts today believe it is no longer a matter of “if” but “when” such an emergency will occur, and Coweta is even more vulnerable because of its proximity to the world’s busiest airport. A terrorist harboring a contagious disease could walk around the airport for days before there are any signs of the problem, he noted.
What would happen in such a crisis? “We do have a plan,” Jones said, noting that Coweta County EMA, District 4 Public Health and other groups have planned for Points of Dispersal, or PODs, to be located throughout the county so medication could be given or administered to the largest number of people most efficiently. The Newnan-Coweta Airport is one site that could serve as a drive-through POD if local citizens need to be inoculated. East Coweta High School is another strategic location that could host a dispensing lane.
While these “open pods” can treat anyone in Coweta County who comes through, a business can choose to have a “closed pod” that would serve only its employees and their family members, and the company would be able to provide treatment for all its workers here in Coweta County, including those who work here but live elsewhere. A nurse or licensed medical professional must be on staff, and first responders and those being treated at closed pods would receive medicine before the rest of the public. There is no liability to the nurse or the business in such a medical emergency. Townsend said businesses are welcome to work together to create a closed pod, and public health officials are willing to help write a Memorandum of Understanding to reflect such an agreement.
Townsend noted that public health’s goal is to have the emergency response up and running within 12 hours and to have all of Coweta’s 135,000 residents treated within 36 hours.
EMA and public health officials and others have plans in place to draw from the CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile, or SNS, if there is a public health emergency. Jones noted that because of Coweta’s access to I-85, “We’re a hub for the medication to come to,” and protocols are in place for meeting the trucks delivering the medicine or, if need be, for Coweta County equipment to actually pick up the medicine directly.
In November, a simulation will allow emergency management and public health officials and others to test-drive their plan to help them be prepared in the event of an actual emergency.
Jones said he is willing to speak with local business owners interested in creating a closed pod that would serve their employees and their families in the event of one of these medical emergencies.
For more information on scheduling a briefing for your business about this emergency preparedness program, contact Michael Lake, chair of the Chamber’s Coweta County Safety Counsel, at mlake@kcm-america.com.
