Rockford Health System employees receive Disaster Preparedness Handbook

June 16th, 2008 at 05:40pm Deborah Austin

Employees at Rockford Memorial Hospital need a special level of disaster preparedness. Their hospital is the one designated by the State of Illinois to take the lead in coordinating healthcare during a community disaster. And it is the only such hospital, called a “POD Hospital,” in a nine-county area of northern Illinois.

So Rockford Health System has created an Employee Disaster Preparedness handbook, with help from a federal grant. It is the first such handbook published by the health system. Employees received the handbook in early June, at home through the mail.

Should such a disaster strike, employees may need to come to work under tough circumstances and “must also be able to provide for their own families,” said Chris Bellone, POD Hospital Disaster Coordinator for Rockford Memorial Hospital.

To that end, the Employee Disaster Preparedness handbook includes details on subjects such as staff and family support; care of children, elderly family members and pets; items needed at home; guidelines for reporting to work; and assignment of personnel under the Rockford Health system mass casualty plan.

As a POD Hospital, Rockford Memorial is responsible for disaster healthcare coordination in Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Boone, Carroll, Ogle, DeKalb, Whiteside and Lee counties.

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