SARS Preparedness
Date: Monday, October 27, 2003
Time: 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Place: GNYHA Conference Center, 555 West 57th Street, 15th Floor

These two identical briefing sessions, which will be presented by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the NYS Department of Health, will outline measures that hospitals should take now to prepare for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the event that it is introduced in the region this fall or winter. In light of the special issues hospitals face in identifying and containing SARS, one of the speakers will be from a hospital in Toronto, where several hospitals treating SARS patients were closed to new admissions due to the transmission of SARS in the health care setting. Presentations will also be given on the public health surveillance that is being undertaken; new hospital preparedness guidelines, including infection control considerations; and using engineering controls to increase isolation capacity. The briefing is designed for hospital leadership, chairs of disaster committees, infection control directors, emergency department personnel, facilities/engineering directors, and other personnel who will be involved in preparing for and responding to a possible case of SARS. For more information call Susan C. Waltman, and to register call Linda Tam, at GNYHA.

HERDS Drill
Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Location: At your institution

GNYHA and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) will conduct this drill of the Hospital Emergency Response Data System (HERDS). The drill will begin sometime between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and will run for approximately two hours. By making the start time non-specific, hospitals will be able to test their ability to receive and respond to alerts from DOH's Communication Directory. During the drill, hospitals will be asked to conduct actual assessments of their current surge capacity and submit this information via HERDS. For more information contact Susan Stuard, and to register contact Meg Figley, at GNYHA.

Human Factors in Patient Safety
Date: Friday, November 21, 2003
Time: 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Location: Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Northport, 79 Middleville Road, Building 5, Northport, New York

GNYHA will co-host this briefing in coordination with the Long Island Coalition for Patient Safety and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center at Northport, Long Island. The briefing will highlight the role of human factors in patient safety, and will discuss the extensive research that the VA has done in this area. Speakers include Wayne M. Osten, Director, Office of Health Systems Management for DOH; John Gosbee, M.D., M.S., Director of Patient Safety Information Systems at the VA National Center for Patient Safety in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and a panel discussion with GNYHA members identifying case studies related to potential human factors that could contribute to a medical error or near-miss event. For more information contact Terri Straub, and to register contact Rosanne Denaro, at GNYHA.