“The District 5 Hospital Preparedness Planning Committee Inc. mission is to ensure all hospitals in Indiana District 5 develop, maintain, refine, and to the extent achievable, enhance the capacities and capabilities of their healthcare systems, and for exercising and improving preparedness plans for all –– hazards including pandemic influenza.”
The District 5 Hospital Preparedness Program Committee (HPPC) is composed of 8 counties: Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, and Shelby. The HPPC works closely with 53 hospital facilities and multiple coalition partners to be prepared in times of crisis, emergency, and disaster. This is accomplished through education, training, and facilitated exercise, as well as, coalition relationship building.
District 5 has a robust mass notification system called LiveProcess. Hospitals, the Indiana State Department of Health, and each county’s Health Department are part of the process. Within moments of being alerted of an emergency or disaster, the information is sent through LiveProcess to key personnel by way of email, fax, texts, and telephone.
The HPPC has multiple resources available to the hospitals and coalition partners that can be allocated during an emergency/disaster. These include, but are not limited to personal protective equipment, mass prophylaxis/ antibiotic cache, medical evacuation sleds, and portable decontamination equipment. These resources are strategically placed in warehouses, available on trailers, and/or stored at various hospitals throughout the district.
