Thursday, December 6, 2007
For the Attention of
Hospital CEOs, Board Chairs, Risk Managers,
Emergency Contact List, Joint Health and Safety,
OHA Board of Directors and CACN Members
Hilary Short
President and CEO
OHA Pandemic Planning Toolkit for SRN Hospitals Released
The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) is pleased to announce that it has released the “OHA Pandemic Planning Toolkit for Small, Rural, and Northern (SRN) Hospitals". The Toolkit was developed by the OHA in response to the unique issues and challenges faced by SRN hospitals in developing emergency response plans specific to an influenza pandemic. The goals of the Toolkit are to provide practical strategies, checklists and templates to assist these hospitals with the development and implementation of a Hospital Pandemic Plan.
A hard copy of the Toolkit is being sent to all acute care hospital CEOs this week.
Hospitals are encouraged to review the Toolkit for information that will help guide their own pandemic influenza planning activities. This information includes:
• A chapter on Community Pandemic Planning and Response, outlining what pandemic planning could look like at the community level
• “Seven Steps to developing a Hospital Pandemic Plan”, which is outlined in the Hospital Pandemic Plan and Response chapter
• Details about what the various levels of government are doing to meeting information needs and how to develop a communications plan
• Chapters providing guidelines and tools for how to develop service reductions, human resources, and equipment and supplies plans
OHA members will be able to download the Toolkit from the OHA website at www.oha.com on December 14, 2007. Additional hard copies of the toolkit can be ordered online by visiting “Communications – Publications for Sale – Publication #319” or by calling 416-205-1350.
For further information about the Toolkit, contact either Karen Sequeira at 416-205-1328 (ksequeira@oha.com) or Michelle Caplan at 416-205-1391 (mcaplan@oha.com).