Governor Douglas Announces 'Operation Red Clover' to Improve Public Health
Emergency Response Major Exercise to be held August 2 - 4 in Burlington,
St. Albans and Morrisville
Burlington, Vt. - For three days next week (augst 2-4), the state of Vermont will
conduct a large-scale test of its public health emergency response
capability, Governor Jim Douglas announced today. This exercise is the
largest of its kind ever conducted.
Dubbed 'Operation Red Clover' after the Vermont state flower, the exercise
will pit an estimated 700 participants from the Department of Health, area
hospitals, and multiple state and local agencies against a simulated
outbreak of a deadly infectious disease.
The exercise scenario begins Monday morning, August 2, with simulated
reports coming into the Health Department from three hospitals about
patients just admitted with unusual symptoms.
Over the following hours and days, epidemiologists, public health nurses,
microbiologists, infection control practitioners, hospital staff,
physicians, nurses, government officials, emergency responders, local
emergency managers, community members and many others will play out their
various roles in the emergency posed by the simulated event.
"This is a very important exercise," said Gov. James Douglas. "It's
critical to the continued safety of Vermonters that we put all of our
emergency plans to the test. With funding from the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, the Vermont Department of Health has been
working hard to see that our public health and health care system is
well-trained, well-organized, well-equipped and well-prepared."
The focus of the exercise next week will be on the Health Department's
offices in Burlington, St. Albans and Morrisville. Other major
participants are Fletcher Allen Health Care, Northwestern Medical Center,
Copley Hospital, the Vermont National Guard, Vermont Emergency Management,
and the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.
"We must be ready for anything - from a natural disaster to an infectious
disease outbreak, to an extreme act of biological, chemical or nuclear
terrorism," said Health Commissioner Paul Jarris, MD. "The international
SARS epidemic of 2003 provided the latest real-life example of why we need
to have a system ready to respond immediately and effectively to any
threat to the health and lives of Vermonters."
Key elements that will be tested during Operation Red Clover:
* Disease surveillance and investigation to detect unusual
patterns of illness
* Deployment of Fletcher Allen Health Care's new bio-isolation
unit
* Laboratory capacity to test and confirm clinical specimens
for biological agents
* Rapid information exchange among health professionals via
Health Alert Network
* Delivery of timely, accurate, credible and useful
information to the public
* Activation of the Health Department and State Emergency
Operations Centers and Incident Command System to manage emergency
response
* Deployment of Strategic National Stockpile (SNS)
pharmaceuticals to local clinics
* Community clinics to deliver medicine to people who may have
been exposed
Operation Red Clover is the first in a planned series of large-scale
exercises to test public health emergency preparedness and response.
Although each event will focus on a particular threat, the overall goal is
to enhance Vermont's "all-hazards" approach to emergency response.