By Malka Cramer , other
Rainstorms, floods, blackouts, and earthquakes are but some of the constant threats residents of the Pacific Northwest face every year. What should citizens who may need assistance in normal times do to prepare for potentially devastating acts of man or nature?
Retirement facilities in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood with help from the county have banded together to offer reciprocal aid in the event of an emergency. In 2007, the Summit applied for and was awarded a $25,000 grant from the King County Healthcare Coalition and Public Health of Seattle and King County, and was able to push an aid initiative into motion. The focus is to better prepare vulnerable communities such as the elderly, immigrants with language barriers, and the mentally ill for a disaster so they know what to do and where to go.
After receiving the grant, The Summit at First Hill, with the facility’s safety officer Beth Cordova taking the lead, reached out to the retirement communities in and around Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood and proposed they join together and find a way to better prepare the residents and staff for a possible disaster, if and when one may occur.
Eight other facilities in King County received similar aid grants, in addition to many agencies that received $2,500 to go toward helping communities be better prepared should a disaster arise.
“This was a huge undertaking by the Healthcare Coalition,” Cordova said. “Their leadership and guidance most certainly propelled community preparedness levels most likely unseen in other areas of the country.”
Cordova contacted the administration of Exeter House and Horizon house, her facility’s “market competitors” and proposed the initiative. They organized monthly meetings and discussed the possibility of forming an alliance that could offer reciprocal aid.
Given the amount of administrative effort and necessary communications, the task proved more difficult than expected. But armed with their grant, they worked out how they would be able to give aid to facilities with entirely different functions and sizes. A year and a half later, the three facilities agreed upon a formal Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, the first of its kind, which created the First Hill Long Term Care Disaster Coalition.
“[We were able] to create relationships with people who would not normally get together,” said Esther Friend, administrator of The Summit.
The city and county hope this concept will help to prevent citizens in Seattle neighborhoods from flocking to critical health facilities such as hospitals and clinics and provide immediate aid for surrounding areas.
“You’ve got to be prepared to help yourself,” Cordova said.
With the MOU in place, residents of the retirement facilities and other neighborhood residents should be better prepared to cope with little or no help from the authorities.
Functioning with full communication between the three facilities, with Horizon House as their “command center,” the coalition will be able to handle most crises using protocol booklets in three languages, which enables each of the faculty to respond appropriately. The Summit has a full care center where anyone in need of medical assistance can receive treatment without having to take up critical space at a surrounding hospital. The building also has its own electric generators in the event of power outages.
“In the event of an emergency, it’s important to know you’re not operating alone,” Cordova said.
Now that the MOU is signed, The Summit is preparing frequent drills to test the protocols put in place. Each facility, with its protocol booklet, will simulate a given disaster and all three facilities will act accordingly. This will include testing low-frequency radios to find out where people are and to track items.
What constitutes and defines a disaster could range widely. Since every facility has its own set of safety rules and emergency operations as required by law, the members are focusing on the “big one,” a large earthquake that geologists expect may eventually hit Seattle. This will be the first drill to take place in the fall.
Far more minor emergencies could also put the plans of the MOU in action, Cordova said, from a generator failure in one of the other facilities, or a fire that necessitates the evacuation of all of the facility’s residents.
This past winter was a perfect example, Cordova said. With the heavy snowfall, much of the city was shut down for days. People were trapped at work or in their homes and even delivery trucks could not make it up the steep slopes of First Hill. In similar situations, the MOU would enable neighborhood residents to band together and help anyone in need.
Cordova was awarded the 2008 Excellence in Leadership award given by the executive council of the King County Healthcare Coalition for her work in heading the development of the coalition and MOU. Their plans and efforts may become a model for other communities to follow, Cordova said. Some areas, such as Mercer Island, have already taken similar steps in getting its community more prepared for a disaster. That municipality has encouraged families to start talking, making plans and making sure the resources needed to survive during a disaster are available, especially for the elderly, Cordova said.
“Now that the milestone of a formal agreement has been reached,” she said, “the coalition will continue its work, planning mock drills, improving protocols and educating staff and residents.”