The Situation Report | January 16, 2024
On December 14, 2023, the state Department of Health (DOH) released a Winter Storm Season 2023-2024 Guidance for home care agencies, adult care facilities, hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers, and nursing homes.
All Providers
DOH advises that leadership and staff at all facilities and agencies should review their Emergency Response and Evacuation Plans to ensure procedures are up to date, understood by staff, and contact information for all key staff and response partners is current; staff should be ready to activate these plans when needed.
Plans for ensuring adequate staffing should be reviewed, and should include the following:
- The use of redundant communications if normal mechanisms are impacted,
- Necessary notifications and alerts to staff,
- Adjustment of shifts and management of staffing shortages sue to transportation impacts,
- Securing needed supplies and preparations for staff that remain on site if roadways are not passable,
- Process for bringing in and housing additional staff prior to a storm to ensure sufficient coverage during the storm event and recovery period, and
- Emergency power.
During and following a storm, providers experiencing prolonged power outages or other storm impacts should make requests for assistance through their local county Emergency Operations Center (EOC) or other county Office of Emergency Management (OEM) if the EOC is not activated. Those providers located within New York City (NYC) who need services or supplies should contact NYC Emergency Management. Facilities should primarily plan to gather necessary resources prior to the storm from their normal suppliers and rely on resources from their local OEM as a primary source of pre-storm supplies.
Home Care
Home care agencies are encouraged to review patient care needs and consider adjustment of visits to ensure that Level 1 patients are visited prior to the start of a forecasted storm and that all patients are reminded of how/who to call for assistance if they lose their power or have a medical emergency.
Plans for adjusting staff schedules/prioritizing patient visits in the days immediately following the storm should be made, particularly if travel is still impeded, with a focus on reassigning staff based on proximity to patients to limit travel and reduce exposure to hazardous conditions. Agencies should also ensure that staff and their patients have enough supplies to cover a period of at least 24 hours prior to and 72 hours following the start of the storm.
Agencies should be ready to contact staffing services if a large proportion of their regular staff are unable to travel and perform any of their normal visits for an extended period of time following the storm.
Agencies should also be ready to communicate with their patients during and immediately following the storm to perform checks on their safety and condition of their health. A plan for managing situations where patients refuse to evacuate a hazardous situation should be developed and included in the Agency’s emergency response plan.
Health Commerce System (HCS)
Every provider must ensure that all computers and network infrastructure necessary for disaster response are supported by generator power. The HCS is used for critical communications and data sharing during emergencies/ Several key response agencies, including DOH, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH), other state and NYC agencies, emergency response partners and healthcare trade associations, rely on data gathered within several key applications accessed on the HCS.
Every provider must ensure they have staff with active, (current password) HCS accounts who are assigned to the roles in the HCS Communications Directory that grant access to Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) surveys.