NVERS Weekly Update, February 3-7

On Monday, the Medical Supply and Pharmaceutical Working Group met to finalize recommendations for the Doxycycline repurchase and discussed strategic planning options for large future purchases of pharmaceuticals. The group also received an update on the current status of the Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) project. The first TECC Working Group meeting will be held on February 21st.

The Inclusive Emergency Management Workshop will be held April 9th and 10th at 4975 Alliance Drive (VDEM/VDOT Building) in Fairfax; a planning call this week was held to finalize details for the workshop. This 1 ?? day course is designed to help local emergency managers better understand how to address functional needs populations in emergency planning. The training will address a broad range of functional needs including physical and/or mental challenges, and cultural and language barriers as they relate to emergency operations planning. The page to register for the course can be found here: http://www.vaemergency.gov/content/course-request-form

On Thursday evening the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) K9s arrived in the region. Handlers will become acquainted with their dogs over the weekend and begin a five week intensive course on Monday. Four English Springer Spaniels and one German Shepherd join agencies in Northern Virginia to expand the explosive ordinance detection capabilities. NVERS welcomes Bobby, Sally, Buster, Jude, and Pedro to the region!

Finally, the Patient Tracking System (PTS) working group held their monthly meeting on Friday. During this meeting the group was presented with a first-generation version of the Incident Commander Application and were given the opportunity to provide feedback and edits. They also continued their discussion regarding Mobile Device Management (MDM) for the Patient Tracking System tablets that have been ordered and will be arriving shortly.