{"id":11406,"date":"2012-09-06T12:12:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T16:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=11406"},"modified":"2012-09-06T12:12:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T16:12:29","slug":"feds-deem-county-ready-to-handle-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=11406","title":{"rendered":"Feds deem county ready to handle disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

For second year in row, county gets perfect score on readiness assessment<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The Center for Disease Control’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) has large quantities of medicine and medical supplies to protect the American public if there is a public health emergency (terrorist attack, flu outbreak, earthquake) severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just in time for National Preparedness Month, Chester County has received a perfect score of 100 on the 2012 Federal Technical Assistance Review (TAR) for the second year in a row, county officials said.<\/p>\n

The TAR is an annual assessment by the Centers for Disease Control supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health of the overall county Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lead federal evaluator noted that Chester County \u2018has definitely developed an operational SNS plan which may be one of the best that I have seen across the nation,\u2019\u201d said Commissioners\u2019 Chair Terence Farrell. \u201cThe federal report noted that we have an extremely dedicated core group of professionals working on our team to ensure the effective and efficient planning, coordination, and implementation of this complex program that is very important to public health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

A federal evaluation took place on June 26. The review included assessment of 12 SNS program elements such as Command, Control, and Coordination, communication and public information, and the core element of county-wide distribution and dispensing of medication in response to a countywide medical emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany county professionals worked hard to prepare the plan,\u201d said Commissioner Kathi Cozzone. \u201cOne of the top duties of county government is to make citizens safe, especially during emergencies.\u00a0 We will continue to modify and improve the program, learning lessons from past training, exercises, and evaluations and responding to changes in ever-evolving risks and threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county’s SNS program is spearheaded by the county\u2019s Health and Emergency Services departments. \u00a0Facilitated and supported by the Aquila Strategy and Operations Group, the team includes key county personnel, county school district representatives, hospital officials, representatives of care homes, municipal officials and groups, private businesses, large corporations, as well as several colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 100 percent rating for the second consecutive year is impressive, as is the cooperation and participation of every hospital and school district in Chester County\u201d said Commissioner Ryan Costello. \u201cThis is a joint private and public partnership, and the goal is to keep everyone safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chester County SNS program is part of a federally-managed system that, in the event of a major public health emergency, provides medication, medical equipment, and medical supplies to local areas to support the local response to the emergency, which could be natural or human-caused.\u00a0 Typical planning scenarios include a terrorist attack, pandemic influenza, and mass Anthrax exposure.\u00a0 If such an emergency occurred, citizens would be given\u00a0 specific instructions and likely directed\u00a0 to various sites to receive medication.<\/p>\n

In the region, Chester County joined Philadelphia and Delaware Counties in receiving back-to-back perfect scores,\u00a0 said Rebecca Brain, a county spokeswoman. She said state officials indicated that few jurisdictions nationwide have achieved \u201cthis level of evaluated proficiency and readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For second year in row, county gets perfect score on readiness assessment Just in time for National Preparedness Month, Chester County has received a perfect score of 100 on the 2012 Federal Technical Assistance Review (TAR) for the second year in a row, county officials said. The TAR is an annual assessment by the Centers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,317],"tags":[29,1484,1872,1285,188,1871,1284],"class_list":["post-11406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-chester-county","tag-chester-county-department-of-emergency-services","tag-chester-county-health-department","tag-kathi-cozzone","tag-ryan-costello","tag-tar","tag-terence-farrell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}