To test the county’s preparedness in the event of a large-scale
public health emergency, such as a pandemic flu outbreak, the San
Benito County Public Health Division conducted the drill.
Hollister – Inside the Veterans Memorial Building on Wednesday morning, Deputy Director of Public Health Services Samela Perez spoke intently on her cell phone with a staff member at Hazel Hawkins Hospital.
Acting as emergency preparedness coordinator for a pandemic flu outbreak drill that took place Wednesday, Perez asked the doctor on the other end of the line how many of the hospital’s beds were full and how much medicine they needed.
Around her, people wearing vests in colors designating their responsibilities during the drill, rushed around performing their jobs.
It was all pretend, though. The boxes containing the “medicine” were actually empty, the flu patients taking up beds at Hazel Hawkins did not exist.
But the look on Perez’s face, and the faces of the other 25 people participating clearly displayed how seriously they were taking the drill.
“It’s a very serious process,” Perez said. “Preparation is half the battle.”
To test the county’s preparedness in the event of a large-scale public health emergency, such as a pandemic flu outbreak, the San Benito County Public Health Division conducted the drill.
This specific drill tested Hollister’s ability to receive medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile, a large cache of pharmaceuticals available in the case of an emergency, and then to disseminate them to hospitals and other areas of need throughout the county.
“Today’s event is a learning process so we can learn what works and what doesn’t and remedy that,” Perez said Wednesday.
During the drill, individuals from public health, public works and the sheriff’s departments – as well as pharmacists and other volunteers – worked together to follow the county’s emergency preparedness plan.
Public health officials began developing the plan two years ago, and the document was completed in April of 2007.
Testing this plan out, however, is key to ensuring its success, Perez said.
“We’re testing our ability to do what we said in our plans,” Perez said.
Perez also brought in outside people to evaluate the county’s response. Tamara Chapman, who works as a research associate at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, observed the process and provided feedback.
“It’s really good to have the outside feedback,” Chapman said.
The public health department chose to focus on a pandemic flu outbreak because if one occurred, it would affect a large geographical region, Perez said. There is no way of determining the likelihood of another pandemic flu outbreak, but it is important for people to be prepared, she said.
