HC practices point of distribution drill to prepare for health crisis’ ‘We plan and drill with the hope that we never have to use this,’ public health official says

Henry County practiced a closed point of distribution drill on Tuesday, May 7, with the southeast Iowa region and the Iowa Department of Public Health to carry out their strategy for distributing medication or vaccinations if there were to be a pandemic or other health crisis.

Tuesday morning, Walt Jackson, director of Henry County Emergency Management, called participants in the closed point of distribution (POD) drill, which included seven southeast Iowa counties and eight Henry County nursing homes. While all participants were already aware of the time and place they were to pick up 'medication” - which were flavored Tootsie Rolls - Jackson wanted to act out the drill to make it as real as possible.

'I think we've got a good plan,” Jackson said. 'We want to exercise our plan and make sure it's comprehensive and covers everybody.”

A real emergency would be determined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Jackson said. The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) would pass information up to the federal level if they thought a health crisis was reaching critical levels before it was passed back down to the state, regions, counties and communities. IDPH would announce that a truck was being sent to the region and Jackson would contact the first victims to inform them of when they should come pick up their medication, he said.

Jackson said that anything from a bad case of influenza to anthrax, mumps or measles could trigger a statewide response resulting in the state distributing medication.

A natural disaster could also trigger a POD, for example if people need tetanus shots, food vouchers or lodging, Jackson said.

On Tuesday, however, Henry County Public Health officials gave out Tootsie Rolls as 'medication” to representatives who took them back to the closed POD locations of Arbor Court, New London Specialty Care, Park Place, Parkview Home, Savannah Heights, Southeast Renal Dialysis and Sunrise Terrace. Tootsie Rolls were carefully counted by Jackson and any extra Tootsie Rolls were to be returned to Emergency Management to be redistributed to other residents in need as part of the drill.

Representatives from Des Moines, Louisa, Van Buren, Lee, Jefferson and Wapello counties arrived earlier in the day to pick up their share of 'medication” to take back to their counties where they continued their own POD exercises.

Counties also received training Tuesday about how to transport medication that needs to be refrigerated, Jackson said.

The truck from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) delivering 'medication” to the region for the POD drill was rescheduled for June 13. IDPH will provide additional training at that time.

Brent Spear, with IDPH Bureau of Emergency and Trauma Services, said that the ability to provide vaccines to a community in a time of need in a timely matter is core public health work.

'Being able to practice that without lives being on the line to validate processes, procedures and equipment is a key component to making sure we can safeguard a community in a time of need,” Spear said while at Henry County Emergency Management for the drill on Tuesday. 'We plan and drill with the hope that we never have to use this.”

Historically, however, medical emergencies do occur and the state wants to be prepared, Spear said.

'We don't have to look too far back at H1N1 in 2009,” Spear said, adding that at that time there just weren't enough vaccinations in response to the large influenza outbreak. 'We have to be able to respond to these novel things.”

Spear said that the processes counties use to get material from the federal government to the state to the local level are similar across Iowa, although it may work differently in a small town like Mt. Pleasant than it does in Des Moines.

In June when the state practices their part of the POD drill, they will bring a semi load of product from their state warehouse to show emergency management coordinators how things will work at the local level such as how much space is needed to unload a semi, Spear said.

Spear said the state is practicing POD drills now because of requests from counties, whether because of shifts in delivery locations or high turnover of public health or emergency management employees.

'We'll support this because it is an important lesson,” Spear said. 'It takes local support to make this happen.”

Shelley Van Dorin, director of Henry County Public Health, said that while hopefully the county will never have to employ a POD, they are prepared in case of a pandemic or anthrax attack. Van Dorin said if something were to happen, they would have 48 hours to medicate the entire county.

Van Dorin said that record keeping is a big part of the drill. While the hardest part of the POD drill was preparing for it with table-top exercises and regional meetings over the past few months, Van Dorin said it was important to put it into action and physically carry out a closed POD to ensure everyone is familiar with the procedure.

Closed PODS are places like the Henry County Health Center, the Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility and senior living facilities. In a closed POD, medication would be delivered to these facilities or representatives would pick up the medication from Henry County Emergency Management. Residents, staff and their families would receive medication.

Open PODS would be available to the general public at churches and schools where the county already has memorandum of understandings to distribute medication from those locations.