Eric Weiss, associate professor of surgery (emergency medicine) and medical director of the office of Service Continuity and Disaster Planning, presented an overview of the Pandemic Influenza Response Plan (PIRP) of SHC and Packard Hospital to the Medical School Executive Committee in November. Some of the 14 modules included in the PIRP include: surveillance and screening; infection control; inpatient care and clinical guidelines; antivirals/ antibiotics/vaccines; triage protocols; surge plan; lab diagnostics; human resources and occupational health; communication and training; security; and influenza care centers.
Weiss outlined the phases of a pandemic and the hospital response. He also reviewed the recent histories of H5N1 and SARS episodes. He emphasized the speed with which these infections spread as well as the need to train health care workers in the proper use of protective equipment. He also commented on the collaborative efforts of SHC and Stanford University groups.
Lawrence Gibbs, the university’s associate vice provost for environmental health and safety, told the group that the university’s interventional and mitigation strategies fall into two categories: pharmaceutical (such as vaccination, if available, and treatment of infected individuals) and the implementation of social distancing (such as sending students home or dispersing nonemergency faculty/ staff). Gibbs said a key decision would be at what point in the onset of a pandemic to initiate the dispersal of students.
Gibbs said the plan is based on a triaging system and that his office would provide tools to various units of the school to assist in detailed planning.
“Both the University and the hospitals have made enormous progress in their planning efforts. I am very appreciative of these efforts and look forward to the further refinement of the plans, even as I hope that we will not have to implement them,” Dean Philip A. Pizzo said in his Nov. 5 Dean’s e-newsletter.
— Courtesy Dean Philip A. Pizzo’s
e-Newsletter: http://deansnewsletter.
stanford.edu/archive/11_05_07.html#8
