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Georgia steps up bioterrorism training

Emergency Management Alert, March 29, 2005

The Georgia Department of Human Resources plans to initiate a new bioterrorism/emergency preparedness program for as many as 150,000 hospital workers across the state, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported this week.

"This is the first time that it has happened at this level," Tod Rose, risk communicator for the state's division of public health told the Chronicle. "Each healthcare worker is going to receive a packet that will give them the tools and training that they need."

The plan includes training videos, as well as printed materials on disaster preparedness and terror awareness, a brochure on the threat of bioterrorism, and a booklet on healthcare worker stress. The information details weapons of mass destruction, facility disaster plans, and planning. The program could cost as much as $500,000. The Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the Department of Health and Human Services will pay for the program through a state grant. "It's terrific. I think it will be a more coordinated response when you have an event that crosses some boundaries and where you have many hospitals participating in it," Kathy John, director of safety at Piedmont Hospital, told the Chronicle. "We're excited that now it will be consistent across the state." Training hospital employees is critical because they could be the front line in a bioterrorism attack, security experts say. "Bioterrorism is becoming the nation's foremost concern," Babs Sachdeva, CEO of a homeland security company called RAMSAFE Technologies Ltd, told the Chronicle. "It's a well-known fact that our hospital capacities are not exactly where we want them to be. A lot of interoperability issues have to be ironed out with the police, fire, and medical personnel all responding together."

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