MHPC and MATRAC Team Up for Decon Project

January has been an extremely busy month for MHPC Healthcare Preparedness Coordinator Sarah Seiler, MATRAC Healthcare Preparedness Coordinator Mark Stepp, and MHPC Volunteer Bob Yonas. The team has been preparing to implement a Hospital First Receiver Decontamination Project that they have been working on for over a year. On Wednesday, January 27th, the team had the opportunity to present their Hospital First Receiver Decontamination Project to a group of healthcare professionals ranging from EMS to hospital nursing in Sanford, NC.

The First Receiver Decontamination Project was the brain-child of Sarah Seiler back in January 2014. She found that a need arose to deliver this type of training due to hospitals spending large amounts of time and effort to develop decontamination procedures and protocols. Facilities had many questions about decon team maintenance, appropriate size, and how to provide good training to those on the team. From these needs a Statewide Committee, along with MHPC and MATRAC, developed and established and developed a First Receiver Decontamination Guidance, which would help hospitals develop a decon program that was sustainable. Ultimately, the team wanted help hospitals develop and maintain a decon program in an effective and cost efficient manner.

Currently, the project is in beginning phases with pilot classes being taught through the end of March. Bob Yonas led as the primary instructor, Mark Stepp as the secondary instructor, and Sarah Seiler aided as program support. The first pilot, taught in Sanford at Central Carolina Hospital, featured standardized education which taught participants how to recognize a potential contamination, what PPE is, how to decontaminate yourself and other patients, and how to put everything back together once the decontamination process has taken place.

From this project, the team is hoping participants will learn that hospitals are eager to provide safe and effective decontamination strategies to their patients, but need assistance developing a sustainable model. They want as many facilities as possible to take part in the classes being presented. In addition, the team is hoping to do as many presentations as possible throughout the region and would like any facility interested, to host a class!