Who
- Bay Area hospitals
- Bay Area emergency service agencies
- Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative
What
The Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) held three tabletop exercises in a number of Bay Area counties. Although this was a virtual event, it was well attended by several fire departments, law enforcement agencies, local emergency medical service agencies, and hospitals. The focus of the exercise was to walk through the operations of a small decontamination event such as at a community pool, a medium decontamination event such as at a sporting event, and a large-scale event in multiple cities at the same time.
The group discussed how notification would happen with each of the events, which agencies would be notified and when, the movement of patients from the event to the hospital(s), and the process of keeping the patient(s), staff, and others affected by the incident safe. UASI suggested collaborating with Hospital Council and the California Hospital Association on these exercises because of the importance of hospitals working with regulatory agencies for situational awareness to help with resources and regulatory processes.
Take Away / Next Steps
Future decontamination event exercises have been planned.