During their monthly Webinar Series, the Heartland Center for Public Health Preparedness at Saint Louis University School of Public Health presented the St. Louis Area Regional Response System: Development of the St. Louis Medical Operations Center (SMOC) on July 25, 2011.

The program provided an awareness of the core concepts and structure of the Regional Healthcare Coordination Plan (PHCP) and the St. Louis Medical Operations Center (SMOC). Deborah Beezley, Director of Health Information Management, at St. Anthony’s Medical Center discussed the process and strategies for implementation of the SMOC and other highlights from the Standard Operating Guidelines. In addition, presenters addressed the mobilization of Duty Officers and lessons learned from recent high consequence events (i.e., ice storm and blizzard impacting the region in January 2011 and a recent F-4 tornado hitting the St. Louis International Airport and surrounding communities) affecting the St. Louis Region.

The Heartland Centers developed the Webinar Series in July 2010 to educate professionals and initiate discussion about emerging issues in the field of public health, especially public health preparedness and training.

If you missed this Webinar session or would like to review older sessions, click here to view the archived event.

TheHeartland Center for Public Health Preparedness and Heartland the Public Health Education and Training Center co-sponsored the 2011 Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (MDHSS) Public Health Preparedness Conference, Call to Action: Planning for Threats and Responses. Over 350 Missouri public health and healthcare professionals attended the two-day conference in Columbia Missouri on June 28 – 29, 2011.

With renowned speakers and dynamic presentations, the conference offered information on a myriad of topics: the science of earthquakes, Strategic National Stockpiling (SNS), social media and public health, radiation response and more.

The Heartland Centers’ co-sponsorship provided the resources to bring in a key speaker for the conference, Hal Grieb. Mr. Grieb has spoken at events nationwide on social media and preparedness. He is currently an Implementation Manager at Previstar and was the 2011 Statesman Texas Social Media Award Winner for Government use in Social Media. He plays an integral role in the Department of Homeland Security’s social media research and commitees and has enhanced emergency management in various local and tribal governments.

To view Mr. Grieb’s presentation and full conference evaluations, please visit the MDHSS site.

The second session for Cycle XV of the Missouri Public Health Leadership Institute (MOPHLI) provided 16 fellows with interactive leadership development training. Fellows assembled on June 22 &ndash 24, 2011 in St. Louis, Missouri for presentations from various researchers and practitioners in the field and to engage in self-assessment opportunities.

MOPHLI, sponsored in part by the Heartland Public Health Education & Training Center, enhances the current skills and knowledge of MDHSS managers and public health agency administrators through a year-long curriculum that includes personal growth experiences, conceptual development, peer and evaluator feedback, and skill building. This session focused on several topics based on the curriculum goals including, An Introduction to Ethics, Personal Development Process and Plan with Self-Assessment Feedback, Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning, and Collaborative Leadership. Key speakers included Dr. Donna Werner, St. Louis Community College; Nancy Tolliver, Tolliver Consulting; Sherry Immediato, Heaven & Earth Incorporated; and Jeff Wilson, HCA Virginia Health System.

Cycle XV fellows will continue with the MOPHLI program by participating in various projects, self-assessments, WebEx sessions, and one more in-person event before their graduation from the Institute in February 2012.

To learn more about MOPHLI, please visit the website.

At Heartland Centers’ monthly Webinar Series, the session entitled Evolution of the Public Health EOC drew participants nationwide as Dave Cox, Deputy Director of the Oklahoma City-County Health Department shared his expertise.

On June 23, 2011 Mr. Cox communicated his experience in the design and management of an Emergency Operation Center (EOC) to coordinate incident command functions during public health emergencies and other high consequence events. The main goal for this crucial emergency management structure is to serve as an effective and efficient facility for coordinating emergency response efforts. Mr. Cox also discussed how he recently transformed the EOC to integrate the public health’s needs with those of other response agencies. Key components of this newly designed EOC included a multifaceted Public Health Command Post, a Medical Emergency Response Center, a 2-1-1 Call Center, and a Public Health Call Center.

Since 2001, Mr. Cox has been specializing in emergency operations through his work with the Emergency Preparedness Program at the Tulsa Health Department, where he successfully designed and constructed an EOC in response to 9/11. Mr. Cox is currently overseeing the design and construction of a new regional health center in Oklahoma City and is using lessons learned from his experience in Tulsa to develop the next generation EOC model for Public Health.

For more information about the Webinar Series or to view this archived event, please visit the website.

On March 31, 2011, the Heartland Centers hosted their public health Webinar Series on a nationally recognized flu campaign developed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Melanie Christian, the Marketing Director at the Tulsa Health Department presented the session entitled, Public and Private Partnerships: A Success Story, Tulsa Health Department's Flu Prevention Campaign: Don't Bug Me.

The "Don’t Bug Me" flu awareness and prevention campaign is in its seventh year and is a joint partnership between Hillcrest Medical Center and the Tulsa Health Department. This nationally recognized campaign is designed to teach healthy lifestyle habits to avoid getting and/or spreading the flu.

"Don’t Bug Me" is an interactive campaign presented continuously throughout classrooms and businesses, with supplemental educational materials for teachers and business executives. Through this campaign, the Tulsa Health Department and Hillcrest Health Care System, a nine-hospital health system located throughout eastern Oklahoma, joined together with one key objective – communicate tips to help stop the spread of flu. This educational campaign reaches out to some 750,000 Tulsa area citizens.

The Heartland Centers (HC) hosts this Public Health Webinar series throughout the year as part of the HRSA Public Health Training Center grant. For more information about the series or to view archived events, visit the Webinar Series website.

Michael Thomas, MPHAssociate Director for the Heartland Centers for Public Health & Community Capacity Development presented Crisis Leadership: Thinking the Unthinkable, the Gulf Oil Spill at the 6th Annual Parks College Safety Across High-Consequence Industries Conference held at Saint Louis University on March 10, 2011.

The conference presented a unique forum for researches and practitioners from various fields to share their research results, present experiential case studies, and develop professional relationships for collaborative problem solving. The conference brought 244 participants from aviation, health care, industrial safety and other high-consequence industries attended the conference. Mr. Thomas’s presentation reached all of these participants, offering them a behind the scenes look at important leadership mechanisms for a crisis event, specifically the recent Gulf Oil Spill.

The Crisis Leadership: Thinking the Unthinkable presentation takes viewers through the basics of crisis leadership and an evaluation of the country’s preparedness level for high-consequence events such as the Gulf Oil disaster. In addition, Mr. Thomas led an exercise scenario giving conference participants a chance to consider the “unthinkable” and its impact on organizations’ preparedness plans.

Mr. Thomas currently serves as Associate Director of the Heartland Centers for Public Health & Capacity Development and faculty member within the Department of Health Management and Policy at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. He has over thirty years of health care industry experience that includes acute care, long-term care, emergency medical services, primary care, managed care, correctional healthcare, healthcare informatics, public health, Bioterrorism/WMD, and crisis leadership development.

The Crisis Leadership: Thinking the Unthinkable full presentation can viewed at the following link:

In collaboration with Saint Louis University’s Parks College of Engineering, Aviation & Technology, the Heartland Education & Training Center (HETC) and the Heartland Center for Public Health Preparedness co-sponsored the Earthquakes: Mean Business conference held on Friday, February 11, 2011.

This annual program was initiated to raise awareness of earthquake hazards and earthquake risks in the central United States and to explain how businesses can better prepare for future events. Exhibitors provided over 260 attendees with information and resources to assist in disaster preparation and business continuity planning. The information provided in morning presentations, a luncheon seminar and afternoon break-out sessions was applicable to a wide range of individuals and organizations – from those simply interested in earthquakes, to companies involved in new construction; from personnel in earthquake risk management and mitigation, to those in the emergency management or emergency preparedness community.

Saint Louis University's Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology issued a certificate for 7 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) to all engineers and architects who attended Earthquakes: Mean Business for the duration of the event.

The February conference marked the kick-off of the New Madrid Bicentennial and featured presentations by highly respected experts in the field and influential policy makers.

Several of the highlights included presentations by:

• Craig Fugate, National Head of FEMA from Washington D.C.
• David Applegate, USGS Earthquake Program Manager from Reston, VA
• Rob Williams, USGS New Zealand Earthquake Response Team from Golden, CO

For more information or to view the full conference agenda, visit the website.