CA4 Newsletter MArch

8 8 8 8 Volume 12, Number 4 8 8 8 8
A deployable Disaster Medical Assistance Team. Affiliated with the National Disaster Medical System. Founded 1991
DMAT San Diego CA-4 is a public benefit, non-profit 501(c)3 corporation., registered in the State of California and with the IRS.

Co-Sponsored by: UCSD Medical Center & International Relief Teams
Mailing Address: 200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92103-8676
DMAT CA-4 Information Line: 619-543-6216
eMail address of Newsletter Editor, Jake Jacoby: ca4cdr@san.rr.com
DMAT CA-4 WEB site: http://www.dmatca4.org
CONTENTS
Calendar Of Events.............................Page 1
Commander's Log................................Page 1
March team meeting Minutes.............................Page 2
New Director for Emerg Preparedness at UCSD....Page 3

8 8 8 8
CALENDAR
Next Team meeting --
Wed., APRIL 23, 2003 @ 1800 hrs.
Training Subject:
Update on Patient Reception Point Planning
GUEST PRESENTERs: Michael Mulvaney
Naval Regional Medical Center San Diego
(NRMC-SD)
Mr.Mulvaney will be reviewing the updated plans for receiving civilian disaster victims and military contingency patients into San Diego by the local Federal Coordinating Center (FCC) and the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station-Miramar, and the role of NDMS, DMATs and the Air Force ASF.
He will have 2 guests with him: Col Nelson, the CO of the Aeromedical Staging Facility (ASF) currently set at Miramar and Captain Tony Wright, Global Patient Movement Requirements Center (GPMRC) Liaison. He's also a USAF Reserve (Captain) called to active duty in conjunction with the Miramar ICMOP/NCMS Air
Evacuation Hub. He works in Emergency Management for the Los Angeles Fire Dept in his civilian job, and has lots of hands-on Air Force air evacuation air crewman experience.Let's make them feel real welcome.
Where? DMAT San Diego CA-4 Operations Center
8540 Production Avenue, Suite B, San Diego
Location is in Miramar Area, 1.8 miles E of I-805 exit at Miramar Rd. Turn N on Production Avenue, 1/2 block on the left. (Remember, we have no mail box at the Ops Center, so never use this address for mailing purposes)
8 8 8 8
COMMANDER'S LOG
* Order for 1,000 triplicate medical records has been placed. It sure saved having to copy medical records while in Guam, but we breezed through the 500 copies we had with us in the first 5 days of the deployment. If this new printer has a good product, we will likely have triplicate forms made up for the Continuation Sheets as well.
* The leased building housing our Ops Center since 1999 has been sold by our landlord.. We will have a new landlord shortly who wants us to pay higher rental, and take over more of the unit. Your team leadership has been exploring options and alternatives. A decision as to what to do will be made soon. Currently sale is in escrow. Look for announcement soon about our future home.
* Due to Operation Iraqi Freedom, the assessment of risk by the Dept of Homeland Security for a Terrorist attack was increased to Orange last month, and all teams were placed on Advisory. Be ready to place your name on deployment roster when asked. We could get extended at the end of the 10 day period. so keep checking with the Info Line and your emails.
* Two of the three certificates from NDMS for our team deployments have arrived: One for the Winter Olympics deployment in Salt Lake City, and one for the Guam deployment for Super Typhoon Pongsona.
* Planning is now under way for our participation in Operation Rough and Ready, to be held in October 2002, at March Air Force Base. Sara Ontiveros,CA-4 Training Officer, is the principle Exercise planner for the event.
* The Ukraine version of Rough and Ready has been scaled way back, due to military activities. Only 1 participant from CA-4 , Therese Rymer, is on the final list for the Table Top which will be held instead of a full field exercise.

* There are now 3 instead of 2 DMAT liaisons from NDMS. Gary Lindbergh, former Team Commander of FL-2 DMAT is now the team liaison for our team, along with the "DMATs West" and the Burn Specialty Teams. James Young will be assisting the Central Region DMATs and the Pediatric Specialty Teams, and Scott Cromwell will be program manager for the DMATs East.
* Team members (nurses and paramedics) should be thinking about signing up for the next Fire season medical support of CA Dept of Forestry. We only had 6 team members last year who were available when needed for the Pines Fire. I order for the program to work, each of the CA Teams needs to get greater involvement for this worthwhile activity in support of our wildfire responders.

8 8 8 8
Minutes of March Team Meeting

Meeting commenced at approx. 1800 hours, called to order by Peter Diehl, Commo Officer.

1.) Peter provided an overview of communications equipment with the initial goal of demonstrating one communication device per team meeting. This meeting's device was the satellite phone (a "laptop-sized" portable telephone) :

a.) Advantages:
      i.) It has a "remote" antenna; i.e., an antenna that can be placed/positioned at a location several feet away from the phone. This prevents nearby foot traffic from interfering with the signal and reception.
       ii.) Color-coded map of the continental U.S. provided with unit to assist with signal adjustment for optimum reception.
       iii.) Can also be used as a CB (Citizen's Band) radio for two-way communications.

b.)   Disadvantage:
       i.) Very, very expensive to operate; i.e., air time is quite pricey.
       ii.) Due to expense for air time usage, difficult to occasionally test the unit to make sure it's functioning between deployments.

Commander's Report (Dr. Jacoby)

1.)   NDMS has created a standardized loading process which is now mandatory. The basic load needs to fit within 96 shipping crates, and a new numbering system has been provided.All teams across the country will pack their gear in the same boxes, so that when teams rotate in to a previously set up site, things will be findable.
2.) For NDMS conference attendees, All receipts are needed to accompany the CA-4 TEAM reimbursement Request Form ( Form #2).
3.) Jake requested that team members who elect to receive smallpox immunization try to first get them through their employer if possible. CA-4 has an "allotment" of smallpox immunizations for only about 50 team members.
4.) Question was raised by a member about the possibility of CA-4 assisting with casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom. Jake briefly described FCC planning (FCC = Federal Coordinating Centers) for receiving war casualties. Original mission (for DMATs) is to "triage & treat" civilian casualties of natural (e.g., typhoon, earthquake) or manmade (e.g., terrorist attacks) disasters. Presently 50,000 hospital beds are "dedicated" for use by disaster victims (nationally) with contingencies available for military personnel. ***Due to current war status, this issue appears to be moot at the present time.***

Committee reports:

a.) Admin. (Zona Wahrenbrock): "Sign-ups of new people going well."
b.) Commo (Peter Diehl): See presentation notes by Peter above.
c.) Financial (Jake Jacoby): Team checking balance: $8,400 . Fundraising opportunity of $20K up to possibly $50K via a grant through County of San Diego to study "surge capacity" (i.e., %age of local hospital beds which could be released within 24- or 72-hour timeframes in the event of a local disaster) . This could be structured as a joint study; i.e., UCSD Dept. of Emergency Medicine and DMAT CA-4 but DMAT "gets the money". Five-day deadline (from meeting date) so details will likely be forthcoming at the April 23rd meeting.
d.) Fundraising (Sylvia Martinez, Susana Pregent): Sylvia indicated that hardhat headlamps are available for purchase by team members. The cost is $20/each which is the direct cost. In addition, presentations are being created in draft from to disseminate info about DMAT, FEMA with the theme of "Are You Ready/"

e.) Logistics (deferred to work party later)
f.) Nursing (Peggy Perkins): Skills assessment available at the July meeting. Packets to be handed out at the May or June meetings. The stated goal is to achieve a minimum level of competence. Sal Ruiz offered ACLS training - 15 members indicated interest in this.
g.) Pharmaceutical (Michael Sohmer): Recommended a "drill" to activate pharmaceutical cache. ***This could occur due to April 21st EOM team ALERT status.*** Michael also touched lightly on drug stability issues relative to the Guam deployment.
h.) Safety - deferred
i.) Tactical Strike Team-no report
j.) Training (Sara Ontiveros) : Importance of team members logging onto the online training system and attempting to complete as many modules as possible was emphasized.
k.) Web site - (deferred) except it was noted that the monthly newsletter has been added to CA-4's web site by John Johnson.
l.) Supply management (Larry Griffin): Work crew to assist with warehouse (receiving, separating and packing new resupply order) after the end of the meeting.

MEETING ADJOURNED @ 1935 HOURS ... (work party continued on-site until at least 2100 hours)--------------------Submitted by Ken Rogers

8 8 8 8
NEW DIRECTOR FOR EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & RESPONSE at
UCSD Medical Center
Thérèse E. Rymer, C.F.N.P., was appointed the new Director of Emergency Preparedness &
Response for UCSD Health care in a recent announcement by Dennis Goodrich, Director of Facilities Planning & Safety Programs. Rymer has been with UCSD Medical Center since 1976. "Therese brings a number of unique specialties together for this newly created position which will enhance UCSD Health care's commitment to emergency preparedness," said Goodrich.
Prior to this appointment, Rymer was Director of Clinical Services for the UCSD Center for Occupational & Environmental Medicine. She is also Deputy Commander for the Disaster Medical Assistance Team, (DMAT) CA-4, cosponsored by UCSD Medical Center.
DMAT is a volunteer team of health care workers who deploy to disaster sites to provide medical care to victims. Rymer will coordinate and integrate hospital emergency/disaster plans, and serve as a community liaison on emergency
activities for system wide, regional and State initiatives for UCSD Health care. She is currently involved in the Smallpox initiative, evacuation planning and employee education, integration of ambulatory and UCSD Medical Center services in disaster, mitigation and business continuity.
[Reprinted from the CenterPoint, the weekly newsletter of UCSD Medical Center, edited by Eileen Callahan.