Resources

IV Solution Conservation & Management Resources

Baxter’s North Cove facility in North Carolina, the lead manufacturer of IV solutions in the United States, has closed production due to the significant flooding from Hurricane Helene. The Region 1 RDHRS is sharing available resources designed to help facilities with conservation and mitigation strategies. These resources are not intended to be advice or medical guidance but are offered to healthcare systems to review and adapt as they develop their own response plans. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

• IV Solution Conservation & Management Strategies
  • This document provides recommendations for IV solution conservation and communication strategies.
• Strategies for Implementing Oral Rehydration
  • This document contains actionable tools for oral rehydration in clinical settings building on the experiences of Brigham and Women’s Hospital during the last IV Fluid Shortage.
• Equity-Informed Response to Crises Impacting Patient Care
  • As you engage in response efforts, ensuring an equity-informed approach is imperative to maximizing outcomes.
• IV Fluid Bag Shortage Rounding Checklist
  • This checklist was designed by Patient Care Services at Massachusetts General Hospital to ensure that orders related to IV fluid utilization are discussed in daily, interdisciplinary rounds.
• ASPR TRACIE IV Fluid Shortage Strategies
  • This tip sheet developed by ASPR TRACIE includes strategies to help providers modify traditional practices and conserve IV fluids. This resource is also available on the Medical Product Shortages and Scare Resources Page.
• Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations | Orange Book
  • To avoid counterfeit products and unvetted providers, FDA maintains this publication which identifies drug products approved on the basis of safety and effectiveness by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and related patent and exclusivity information. 
• Small and Large Volume Fluid Shortages – Suggestions for Management and Conservation
  • This fact sheet, developed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), provides potential actions for organizations to consider in managing fluid shortages. Healthcare practitioners should use their professional judgment in deciding how to use the information in this document, considering the needs and resources of their individual organizations.
• Supply Guide – Functional Equivalents Report
  • ECRI has published a market analysis and functional equivalents device report designed to help healthcare providers navigate shortages caused by the Baxter facility shutdown. The report from ECRI’s unique database and experts identifies up to the top three alternatives from other manufacturers to the IV and irrigation solutions affected by the plant closure.
• Information from Baxter
  • Medical Information Letter for Home Dialysis Customers
    • This letter, provided by Baxter’s Medical Affairs team, provides guidance on management and conservation actions of peritoneal dialysis solutions commercialized by Baxter.
  • Hurricane Helene Updates
    • Baxter is providing ongoing periodic updates on efforts to bring their North Cove facility in North Carolina back online.

2022 Mpox Resources

• 2022 Monkeypox Planning Toolkit
  • This toolkit is designed to assist healthcare facilities in their planning and response to suspected or confirmed patients infected with the monkeypox virus. Hospitals are encouraged to review the material and adapt to their local context and health department regulations and procedures.

2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Resources

Note: Please see our COVID-19 Resources Page for a complete list of incident-related tools, guidelines and links

Healthcare facilities need to be able to recognize and treat disease caused by novel respiratory pathogens, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and 2019-nCov.

• 2019 Novel Coronavirus Toolkit
  • This toolkit is designed to assist health care organizations in their planning and response to the current novel coronavirus event. It is based on plans and resources developed within our hospitals and is meant to be helpful to other hospitals addressing similar issues and challenges. Hospitals are encouraged to review the materials and adapt them to their local context and health department regulations and procedures. Hospitals are also strongly encouraged to closely monitor guidance from their state health departments and the CDC, since information is likely to continue to change as the outbreak evolves. The content of these materials is designed to comply with current public health guidance, but it does not supersede or replace guidance from federal and state public health authorities.
• Strict Isolation PPE Donning and Doffing
  • MGH Strict Isolation PPE Donning video
  • MGH Strict Isolation PPE Doffing video

High-Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCIDs)

• High Consequence Infectious Disease Training
  • This course is designed to assist front-line healthcare facilities with planning for High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCIDs), including Ebola Virus Disease and other special respiratory pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2. The course includes guidance and tools for identifying and isolating patients with Ebola or other HCIDs and informing appropriate stakeholders while providing safe and appropriate care.
• Current Infectious Disease Outbreaks of Concern Template

Hospital-Based Decontamination Resources

Hospitals must plan for the arrival of potentially contaminated patients following hazardous materials events, be able to limit the extent of collateral exposure from the presentation of a contaminated patient or patients, and be able to safely provide initial triage and care for arriving victims.

• • Proposed Decontamination Capabilities for Hospitals
    • The purpose of this document is to suggest common capabilities that all hospitals in Massachusetts should target in their provision of care to patients who may present to their facilities after contamination with hazardous substances.
  • Hospital Decontamination Self-Assessment Tool
    • This document was developed to provide a structured critique that hospitals may use when evaluating their decontamination plans and capabilities considering current regulatory standards, recommendations from subject matter experts, and national and international best practices.
  • Strategies for First Receiver Decontamination
    • This is a collection of tactics and scalable considerations intended to assist hospitals facing common challenges planning for hospital-based decontamination of patients.

Hospital Evacuation Resources

Although rarely required, both full and partial hospital evacuations are extremely complicated and potentially dangerous events. Careful and detailed planning that supports orderly and safe evacuation operations under a wide array of conditions must be included in any hospital emergency operations plan.

• Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) Hospital Evacuation Toolkit
  • This toolkit is a comprehensive guide that hospitals can use to prepare for and execute a hospital evacuation.

Family Reunification Services

Children who are separated from families are extremely vulnerable and are at risk for significant physical and mental trauma, neglect, abuse, and even exploitation. Therefore, it is important to return these children to the care of their custodial caregivers as quickly as possible. 

• Family Reunification Toolkit
  • This planning tool, developed in Partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics, is meant to provide planning assistance for hospitals as they review and update their plans to provide information, support services, and safe reunification assistance to family members of patients who have experienced disasters.

Hospital Recovery Resources

The process by which a hospital minimizes the impact an emergency has made on its operations is a critical part of emergency planning. Developing hospital recovery capabilities will strengthen a hospital’s ability to quickly respond to and recover from any emergency.

• Essential Functions and Considerations of Hospital Recovery
  • This document was written for hospitals and is intended to serve as a resource for hospitals to use as they prepare to manage their recovery from emergencies of all types, intended to complement the ongoing efforts of federal, state, and local agencies that are similarly committed to enhancing healthcare recovery capabilities.

Unplanned IT Downtime Resources

Health care’s increasing reliance on IT is not limited to support of direct patient care activities, but commonly now extends to nearly every aspect of daily operations. Because of the potential impact on hospital operations, unplanned IT downtime events can be just as serious a threat to patient safety as a power outage or medical gas failure.

• Downtime Toolkit
  • As technology becomes an ever-more essential component of the delivery of modern medical care, healthcare entities must ensure that they have extremely robust and well-conceived operational plans in place to be able to identify the full extent and consequences of any outage as rapidly as possible. This toolkit is designed to assist hospitals and other healthcare organizations with improving their readiness for unplanned IT downtime events.

Disaster Legal/Regulatory Resources

• NEW! Region 1 RDHRS Legal Resource Guide
  • Developed by James Hodge, Jr., J.D., LL.M., Peter Kiewit Foundation Professor of Law; Director, Center for Public Health Law & Policy, at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University (ASU). The guide is divided into five major parts:
    • Emergency Declarations
    • Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)
    • Licensing, Credentialing and Privileging
    • Telehealth and Telemedicine Applications
    • Civil Liability, Immunity and Indemnification
    • Other Legal Issues

Other Preparedness Resources

• Exercise Evaluation Toolkit
  • Developed by the Harvard School of Public Health Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation and Practice Program, this toolkit is an online resource to help you develop exercise evaluation forms for your disaster exercise.

• Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education: Disaster Recovery Supplement
  • Created by the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), this supplement builds upon the 2017 Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education Guidance Manual to assist environmental and public health professionals assess places where children spend time to protect children from harmful environmental exposures during disaster recovery.