DMAT San Diego CA-4 * AUGUST 2004 Newsletter
****
Volume 13, Number 11 ****
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
From the CDR's Desk:..................................... .Page 1
FEMA Press Release RE: Trucks for DMATs......Page 2
Personnel Payroll.............................................Page 3
Minutes, October team meeting .........................Page 3
****
CALENDAR of EVENTS:
DMAT CA-4 Team Meeting
Wed. , November 18, 2004
18:00 hours
Team meetings the rest of the calendar year:
Wednesday, December 15, 2004: Holiday Party
Wed., January 26, 2005
Wed., February 23, 2005
Wed., March 23, 2005
Unless announced, All team meetings will be held at 1800 hours at the
DMAT CA-4 Ops Center
8830-G
Rehco Road, San Diego, CA 92121.
****
"Rough 'n' Ready
2005" Statewide DMAT exercise, Los Alamitos Air Station. Friday thru Sunday,
January 28, 29 and 30, 2005.
MST Training to precede this event, on Tuesday, Jan. 25 thru Thursday, Jan 27,
2005.
Must be signed up by November 28, all names MUST be submitted to NDMS in
advance, no changes permitted after that. Make sure you signup if you have not
already done so at one of the last 2 meetings. .
Tri-Service Combat Stress Conference: April 23-28, 2005 (Sat thru Thursday) ,
San Luis Rey Officer's Club, Camp Pendleton, CA
BATREX 2005 Exercise- Joint Training Exercise with SD US&R Task Force-8. To be
held somewhere in SD County. May 2005, Final Date TBA : Planning to begin soon,
members wishing to be involved in helping to plan this training should submit
their names to me.
DMAT CA-4 was on ALERT for Hurricane Ivan, from Sept 9 to Sept. 22nd.
****
From the CDR's Desk:
eMail received last week:
Dear Jake,
Greetings. It has been a
while. I wanted to take a personal moment to thank you for:
1. Supporting Bob Downey to participate in the Haiti 2004 humanitarian
medical mission. Bob was absolutely fantastic. You should be very proud to
have him as a member on your team. This was the first year that we attempted a
mobile lab in this environment. Bob was key to making this successful. I would
recommend that you have him speak at one of your DMAT team meetings to talk
about field medical laboratories in complex disaster environments. I consider
myself very fortunate to have worked with this top notch professional.
2. Bob tells me that you allowed your team's non-profit status to be used for
part of the donations, and you supported this effort in writing. Thank you!!
Bob did a great job at coordinating laboratory donations, and basically built a
lab capability that was far more than I expected. Thanks to you for supporting
these efforts.
As you probably know, this is a training mission for DMAT members to experience
and work in a complex disaster environment. NDMS focuses on MCI type training,
yet many of the missions are NOT MCI. It began as a sole effort of the WA-1,
and later expanded to OR-2 and CA-6. My vision is to make this a West Coast
opportunity. (There are spring teams that complement the mission from the East
Coast.) I would ultimately like to include other CA teams, and the AK team. I
think it provides a unique training opportunity with a humanitarian "side
effect". It may be something that would be of interest to other CA-4 members in
the future.
Thanks for helping us out this year. It was a great pleasure to work with Bob
Downey.
Take care.
Andy Stevermer
WA-1 DMAT
[Editor's note: Congratulations to Bob Downey for a job well done!! We look
forward to hearing about his experience at the next team meeting. ]
****
Best of luck to Dr. Conrad Salinas, CDR of the CA-2 DMAT in San
Bernardino, as he prepares to leave for active duty with the US Army in Iraq,
starting the first week of December.
****
FLU SHOTS:
Flu shots should be available to all DMAT members who might come into contact
with patients.. The Federal Government, thru the Federal Occupational Health
Clinic, in the Federal Building downtown, should be able to take care of our
m,embers. Please call them and go down there to get all your required
immunization needs, If there is any problem. make sure you call me while you are
still at the clinic and I will try to get the problems solved. Make sure you
bring your FEMA/NDMS ID card with you, which demonstrated that you are indeed a
Federal employee. The letter will be sent out to all members shortly which shows
that NDMS has authorized you to get vaccination services from the FOH Clinic. .
****
FEMA Press Release: November
12, 2004
FEMA ROLLS OUT $6
MILLION NEW TRUCK PROGRAM TO ENHANCE DISASTER RESPONSE : California
Disaster Medical Assistance Team Receives First Trucks
WASHINGTON - In a continuing effort to enhance disaster response capabilities,
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
today launched a $6.7 million program that will speed the response capabilities
of its Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs). The first set of trucks in
the new truck program were delivered to a DMAT team from San Bernardino, Calif.,
in a ceremony held this morning at the assembly plant in Three Rivers, Texas.
"We are so excited about providing our disaster medical teams with these new
trucks and the positive effect it will have on their ability to deploy to a
disaster," said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for
Emergency Preparedness and Response. "These new trucks will help our medical
teams respond to disasters within 12 hours."
A total of 93 trucks will be delivered over the next year to 31 DMATs throughout
the country. The trucks will be used to haul each team's field tents,
generators, medical equipment and supplies. Each team will also receive a
specialized refrigerator truck to haul and store the sensitive pharmaceuticals
used by the teams.
A FEMA DMAT from Santa Ana, Calif., is scheduled to receive its complement of
new trucks later this month.
FEMA DMATs are part of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), which is one
of the resources brought to FEMA since the creation of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.
FEMA DMATs have recently responded to large-scale disasters, including the
Florida hurricanes, The World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001,
Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, and the Bam, Iran earthquake in December
2003. NDMS teams have also been deployed in 2004 to support the G8 Summit in
Georgia, the National Democratic Convention in Boston and the Republican
National Convention in New York.
Editor's Note: DMAT CA-4 was also scheduled to receive trucks in November, but
apparently someone pulled some strings on the east coast, so that a team on the
east coast could receive trucks. and we were removed from the list 2 weeks prior
to our departure planned We have not received any information as to when we will
be restored to the recipient list.
****
Personnel Payroll
US Department of Homeland
Security Employees can access the Personnel system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
to review their current information. This can be done from any PC with Internet
access, whether at home or at work. The Employee Personal Page (EPP)
information is obtained from the same NFC mainframe computer files that contain
your payroll/personnel/travel data.
How is the Employee Personal Page accessed: (Federal Emergency Management
Agency) ?
Step 1: Employees should access the NFC home page on the Internet (www.nfc.usda.gov)
to obtain a personal identification number (PIN) to view employee data. Follow
the instructions provided to request your private PIN
number.
(takes 5 to 7 days)
Step 2: NFC will send you a Form NFC-1265 confirming your access to the NFC
Employee Personal Page. This form will contain your Pin. (5 to 7 days). You
must change the pin number on the first access of the employee Personal Page.
I hope this will answer some of the questions regarding what did I get paid
for, Was is Travel or was it Payroll?.
[Editor's note; DMAT members who receive reimbursement thru the Federal system
will be able to find out about their reimbursements thru this system. However,
if you are receiving funds, for expenses via our team, such as for members who
were supported to go to the 7th Annual State Disaster Conference in Temecula
last month, those funds will not show up in this system.. Those funds are being
paid out of team funds, to ultimately be reimbursed by the State of CA EMSA,
thru the contract we are about to receive from them any day now.
****
October
27,204 Team Meeting Minutes
1). Greetings
Meeting was called to order at 1805 hours by the Team Commander, Jake Jacoby.
2). Presentation: "Medicine in Bhutan"
Presenter: Hal Forney, M.D.
- Dr. Forney gave a wonderful presentation on Medicine in Bhutan. His one
month trip to Bhutan was with The Health Volunteers Overseas Organization
202-296-0928 www.hvonsa.org
Bhutan is located east of Nepal and India, in a fairly remote moutainous region.
Dr. Forney spent a month working at a hospital that specialized in orthopedics.
Most of what was seen was related to primary trauma , and its complications, and
very little plastics or pediatric/developmental orthopedics is done. DR Forney
shared details on some of the most unusual and interesting cases he was involved
with. He also presented a colorful travelogue that gave the audience an
authentic feel for what everyday life is like in this predominantly closed
Buddhist culture. Illustrative images of the prayer wheels, the buildings, and
the native dress which is required wear in public. Many questions were asked
and Dr. Forney related how to contact the group if anyone was interested in
participating in a medical mission there.
3) Committee Reports
a) Logistics [Dave Holland, Director]
i) New Vehicles - 3 new vehicles will be arrived between the Oct
and Dec 2004 (Two 24 ft box trucks, one 22 foot refrigerated truck ("reefer").
14 members signed up to be drivers, and a primary team of 6 drivers were
selected, with 8 back up drivers available, to fly out to Texas and get a
training session on the specialized equipment that the trucks are outfitted
with, and then drive the 3 trucks back to San Diego
ii) Jake reported that the truck rental fee for the August exercise have not
been paid by FEMA to our local truck rental company;
We cannot rent trucks from them for November if the team were to be deployed or
put on ALERT.
iii) Logistics Conference Call
-Jake reported that FEMA has allegedly purchased large quantities of new
uniforms at the Texas warehouse; and the plan is to issue 3 sets of uniforms to
new members only paid with team fund
-Jake reported that FEMA might want to replace team shirts with
standard FEMA team shirt; we will continue to keep our CA-4 team shirt
b) Supply/Property Management [Larry Griffin] - absent
i)Jake reported that we need maintenance on ventilator, and fire
extinguishers ; Jake will resubmit another request for service to NDMS Funding.
ii)The tent heaters problem had been fixed
c) Communications [Jay Thompson]
i) Jay reported that on 10/27 the "push to talk" function on the satellite
phone did not work to connect to OSC when tested; CA-11 had the same problem.
ii) Jay reported that on 10/28 there will be a scheduled Commo conference call;
and he will test the sat phone again
4) Planning
a) Rough & Ready 2005, Los Alamitos, CA Jan 28,29,30
-Jake reported that the JMT Joint Mission Team training will be on
Jan 25, 26, 27 for 85 attendees
-R&R 2005 & JMT sign-up sheet was passed around and the list must
be submitted by Nov 28 to NDMS Training
-JMT attendees will be housed at base housing
-Team
members will only be paid for one exercise per year by FEMA ALL CA4 team members
MUST participate in either this exercise or the one in May in order to be
deployable in the future. However, each member can only be paid for
participation in one of the exercises, thus if you want to participate in
both, you will still only get paid for one.
-Assignments for Exercise:
Moulage - Peggy Perkins
Education Program - Therese Rymer will assist Sam Bradley to develop
learning objectives for the 4 scenarios.
Security - Bill Phillips will assist in support of the head of
security for the exercise.
Ambulance Strike team - Jack Thoreson will participate with
the strike team
Controllers/Evaluators - Martin Hill will be part of the controller
& evaluators group for the 4 sites.
Logistics to support the event - Dave Holland
-CA-4 will advance funding for R&R 2005 T-shirts and pins, needs help in
the design
-R&R 2005 Planning Committee - Jake, Sal & Zona
-Planning Committee members will be paid for their time in planning
from the Federal budget
-Planning Conference Calls and Meetings for R&R 2005
*Nov 10 meeting at Los Alamitos Joint Training Base from 0900 to 1500 hrs.
*Nov 23 conference call from 4-6pm
*Dec 1 quarterly Statewide DMAT Commanders Meeting in San Diego at our Ops
Center, from 9 am-3pm
*Dec 13 conference call from 1400 to 1600 hours.
*Dec 28 conference call from 1000 to 1200 hours.
*Jan 11, 2005 conference call from 1400 to 1600 hrs.
Some other DMATs will be invited to participate at Los Alamitos for
R&R, 2005
The 4 sections of the WMD division of CA Air National Guard (~110) consists of
Search & Rescue, Decon, Security and Medical Care & will participate with
around 110 members.
The scenarios will be related to an earthquake, with chemical and
radiological exposures
At R&R 2005 the Real World Medical Team will be from the CA-9 DMAT.
There will be a little version of the UCSD Web Charts incorporated into one site
-as a pilot to see if it can be adapted for use as a medical record and
tracking device for DMATs.
b) Training [Sara Ontiveros] -
i.) 34% of the team members have now completed the core training program;
need 100% participation in 6 months
ii) Recruiting [Susana Leung] - nothing to report
-Jake commented that we need to target physicians, lab technicians,
Respiratory Therapists and Paramedics
iii)Web site [John Johnson, Michael Sohmer]
-Michael Sohmer will form a web site committee with the participation
of Sal Ruiz, Jay Thompson, Scott Norton; and Michael will obtain access pass
code of the web site for the committee members
iv) Photo archiving/Ukraine' 04, & BATREX '04
-Michael Sohmer reported that only 5 people turned in Ukraine
CD photos; and he put all the Ukraine photos on one CD.
-Michael also put the 5 individual's photos on a DVD with music to be viewed
on TV
A BIG THANKS to Michael for his time and hard work on the CDs
5) Operations:
Activity Reports
a)Hurricane Ivan ALERT
-CA-4 was placed on Alert status from Sept 9-22, 2004
-Bill Phillips and Art Brown reported about their deployments with FEMA
b) 7th Annual State of CA EMS Authority Disaster Symposium: , Oct. 7, 2004
-15 members attended the meeting in Temecula; and will need to
submit reimbursement form to our team, which will be reimbursed from the state
fund
c) Hospital Bed Surge Capacity Training Program-Presentations
-We completed the requirements for the County; by completing two presentations
of the training,one at Scripps Hospital system, and one at Sharp Health Care.
A 3rd presentation is being planned for Children's Hospital, to be given by Sue
Cox.
Committee Reports
a)Nursing [Peggy Perkins]
-no report as Peggy was absence
b)Pharmacy [Michael Sohmer]
-Michael reported that there was no Pharmacy Conference Call
-Michael reported that per FL team - it took 3 days for FEMA to
transport the Federal pharmacy cache to Florida and refrigerated medications
deteriorated and became unusable
-Jake commented that if we are activated,our team needs to ask for
permission to bring our own pharmacy cache
-Jake gave his approval to go ahead to purchase the pharmacy software
program, with the receipt of a $1,000. grant from Abbott Laboratories to help us
support this effort.
c)Tactical Strike Team [Sal Ruiz]
-Jake reported that the project is on hold at this time; and he had
submitted in the Federal Budget for $35,000 to equip a 15 person Tactical
Strike Team Pilot Program. It is not known if it will be approved.
-Sal Ruiz reported that the next DEA training on tactical medicine, with
an exercise will be on Friday, Nov 5; they need volunteers to play victims,
bad guys at Duffy Town at Marine Corps Air Station-Miramar (MCAS Miramar)
-Please send email or call Sal if interested
6) Security & Safety
a)Safety [George Durgin] - absent
b)Security [Bill Phillips]
Bill gave a brief report on Identity Theft Tips
7)Finance & Administration: Reports
a)Administrative Officer [Zona Wahrenbrock]
-There are 3 incomplete applications
-The MOU is under development for Federal employees betweent heir federal
employer department and DHS/NDMS.
-Team members were asked to update personal information
b)Financial [Jake Jacoby]
-Team members are reminded that late fee kicks in Nov 1, 2004, so dues
paid after November 1st will be $25.00, and will go up to $30. December 1st.
Dues was due on July 1st for the team' s fiscal year dues of July 1 to June
30th.
-Jake reported that the team checking account balance is approximately
$89,000.00 after receiving payment of the contract balance by the County of San
Diego.
-Jake reported that the accounting firm that services our books will be
preparing the 990 form for submission, last year's cost was around $1200.
8) New Business
Michael reported on the Breakfast at the Midway, given as part of the Release
of Souls Concert group, on 10/22/04
9) Meeting Adjourned at 2005 hours.
Minutes submitted by Susana Leung.