Regional Hospital
WHEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS
We Are Ready
When chaos hits, facilities are overwhelmed and systems collapse. Regional Hospital provides order. In the critical hours after a mass casualty incident Regional Hospital based in Portland, OR supplies crisis coordination for paramedics and local hospitals.
- We are a communication link between EMS personnel on the ground and hospital medical teams.
- We coordinate patient distribution.
- We track the bed status of emergency departments.
- We prevent patient overload by directing ambulances to hospitals with resources.
- We record patient condition and destination.
- We alert hospitals with radio announcements on the nature and scope of the disaster.
- We broadcast updates with crucial information during the event.
- We drill for these incidents throughout the year.
Reliable Technology
Natural or man-made disasters, power outages, telephone failure, software problems, and high-traffic congestion can cripple communication services. Our integrated systems are designed to survive.
- We have dedicated 800 MHz MCI radio channels with VHF and HAM radio backup.
- We have redundant land-line, wireless, and satellite telecommunication systems.
- We have hospital-wide backup generators.
- We have robust computer security.
TOPOFF 4, October 15-19, 2007, Full Scale National Preparedness Exercise, Portland, OR
Our skills as Regional Hospital were tested during TOPOFF 4, the nation's largest ever civilian disaster drill. Portland, OR. was host to over 15,000 people from 275 federal, state, and local organizations. 350 actor-victims participated in a massive exercise involving a dirty bomb staged to detonate on a MAX train. Regional Hospital worked quickly with paramedics triaging actor-victims to local hospitals. Within the first 5 hours all actor-victims had been sent to emergency rooms. In a real catastrophe coordinated effort is essential to save lives and insure the best use of medical resources.
National Disaster Medical System (NDMS)
The NDMS is a national system managing federal response to declared disasters throughout our country. When the number of crisis victims exceeds state resources, Regional Hospital is prepared to help the Federal Coordination Center disperse patients to Portland area hospitals.
Our History at OHSU
In the 1960s the Northwest Oregon Council of Hospitals developed the concept of a Regional Hospital. OHSU took over the role in 1996 and assigned responsibility to the Emergency Communication Center. We have fulfilled the duties of Regional Hospital ever since.
