Eaton Senior Communities plans for emergencies with Jeffco Public Health!

Eaton Senior Communities, Inc. is an award winning assisted living home in Lakewood, CO. They are well known for their emergency preparedness efforts spearheaded by their Chief Operating Officer Diana Delgado MSHSA, CASP. On August 9, 2016, the facility took their preparedness plans even further by hosting a pilot exercise with Jefferson County Public Health’s (JCPH) Emergency

Preparedness and Response Program. 

This pilot was to test a recently updated manual created by Emergency Preparedness and Response Coordinator, Christine Billings, MPH, Regional Emergency Planner, Pam Stephens, MA, and Colorado School of Public Health practicum student, Sara Dunn. The manual is used for Closed Points of Dispensing (PODs) utilizing a “just-in-time” activation model.

PODs are locations where medication is dispensed in response to a public health emergency, such as a bio-terrorism event. Two different kinds of PODs exist: 1) Open PODs are open to the public and will be located at many locations throughout the county, and 2) Closed PODs are for a specific organization’s clients, staff, and staff’s family members and are not open to the public.

The Just in Time Closed POD Manual includes step-by-step instructions on how to run a POD.

This pilot exercise tested the efficacy of the manual by having Eaton Senior Communities host a full scale exercise of a POD with staff and residents utilizing the Just in Time Closed POD manual. Through this exercise, JCPH’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Program was able to take away many lessons learned which will be used to make continued progress on the manual and processes that will ultimately better serve Jefferson County’s residents during a public health event.