PA Hospitals Join to Put First Responders Online and On-Track

Three Chester County, PA, hospitals have committed joint financial resources to sponsor a Web-based training program for county emergency responders in homeland security and emergency preparedness. Brandywine, Jennersville Regional and Pottstown Memorial Hospitals are providing funding for the customization of Web-enabled training lessons developed by a national firm, MC Strategies, Inc., based in Atlanta, GA.

“Terrorism incidents have heightened the need for emergency responders to be know­ledgeable about a new generation of threats,” says Brandywine Hospital CEO Don Henderson. “This program provides individual lessons that will be used to train fire, police, ambulance personnel and hospital staff in critical local procedures important to protect our community. By our making short lessons available through the Web, first responders can easily access the knowledge they need to prepare for all types of community disasters as prioritized in the County Emergency Operations Plan.”

MC Strategies’ community preparedness training division, known as USA Prepare, has developed the lessons and is maintaining regularly updated training websites for each fire company, police department, ambulance company and all eight hospitals in the Chester-Montgomery Emergency Hospital Safety Zone. Custom and best-practice lessons, organized into 15-minute “breaks,” have been prepared in hundreds of subjects, including Combating Terrorism, Safety Protocols for Hazards, Tactical Operations for Dealing with Crime and Terrorism, Hazardous Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Tim Boone, managing director of USA Prepare, says Web-based training offers many benefits including:

• Reaching large numbers of dispersed learners is feasible and cost-effective.
• Adult learning is more effective when interactive.
• Giving the learner control over the learning process increases participation and training effectiveness.
• Training is consistently delivered with delivery format and utilization history recorded.
• Assessment and testing for adoption and retention are automated.

For more, visit www.usaprepare.com.

—KR