Capacity Building Workshop-Radiation Emergency Surge Annex

Health Communications Consultants, Inc. supported a Radiation Emergency Surge Annex workshop with its partner consultancy Bio-Defense Network in June 2023 for the Indiana District 2 Hospital Preparedness Planning Community, Inc.  

This exercise helped District 2 meet their exercise criteria for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the adverse health effects of a radiological surge event.   

The joint consultancy supported a personalized project consisting of 1) needs assessment for District 2 coalition members, 2) development and review of their existing plan, 3) tabletop exercise, and 4) an after-action report. 

The tabletop exercise had four objectives:

• Review existing radiation emergency care assets and identify gaps that may occur during a radiological emergency incident.
• Review participant/organization’s role during a radiological emergency incident.
• Validate assumptions in the Indiana District 2 Radiation Emergency Surge Annex.
• Identify changes that need to be made to the Indiana District 2 Radiation Emergency Surge Annex based on the roles and capabilities of the involved partners.

A capability-based approach to preparedness planning was used to seek answers to three fundamental questions:

1. How prepared are we?
2. How prepared do we need to be to address radiation emergencies?
3. How do we prioritize efforts to close the gap between response actions and the written plan(s)?

Lessons learned during the tabletop exercise were then used to update plan(s) for immediate action and sustainability. 

Health Communications Consultants Inc.’s training and facilitation expertise provided a unique experience for District 2 Coalition members not only in building capacity but also competency in radiological emergencies, collaboration building, and networking. 

Here is what participants and our client had to say:

District 2 Healthcare Coalition Members build their Radiation Surge Plans

“We have never had a consultant that helped us with so much of our work.

Program Manager

“…what I have seen so far is amazing!  A ton of great information and I feel that it will keep everyone on track!”

Emergency Manager

Program participants work together on their radiological surge response plans.

“You had a great outlook on this tabletop. I have been to many and this by far was the first one that had a vision of questioning the plans each county or agency had written. Normally most tabletops are just a discussion on how to react to the scenario, however, you and your team were very transparent and out of the box thinking.”

Program Participant