We have officially begun planning our upcoming regional Medical Response Surge Exercise, or “the MRSE.” This annual functional exercise is required by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response (ASPR), and is one of the primary grant deliverables for each Healthcare Coalition (HCC) across the country. The MRSE is designed to examine and evaluate the ability of HCCs, their members, and other partners to support medical surges, with a target of meeting the need for an increase of 20% more bed availability than the staffed beds normally designated for each facility. Specifically, the MRSE helps HCCs evaluate their ability to provide patients the care they need at the right place, at the right time, and with the right resources during a medical surge event to decrease deaths, injuries, and illnesses throughout the surge.

We will be conducting our region’s MRSE on April 18^th.  That day, we will

• kick off our exercise activities starting at 9:00 am, with a WebEx pre-exercise briefing
• Followed by the alert/event notifications going out on VHASS (which is the Virginia Healthcare Alerting and Status System.)
• We will keep the WebEx line open throughout the day and monitor VHASS until the exercise concludes. This will allow ample time for each facility to complete its internal objectives and submit its information to our Regional Healthcare Coordination Center (RHCC).

Although this will be a Functional Exercise, participants may opt to conduct a Full-Scale Exercise at their facility if desired. In preparation for this exercise, we are asking each of our regional hospitals to complete a survey that will assist us with collecting the most accurate data to determine specific bed capacity and the numbers needed to meet the 20% surge threshold.  For our hospital partners who have not yet completed and submitted the survey, please do so NLT January 31^st.  Here’s the link to the survey: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/68992c28919a4af7bc7ad49d86224cde

We know that during a surge event, our hospitals benefit greatly from the support of other healthcare partners to assist with functions such as decompression to other facilities, transportation, and more.  Anyone wishing to participate in this MRSE on April 18th is welcome to respond to the prompts in the Event Log that will be posted in VHASS.  We held the first planning meeting with our hospital partners on January 17th.  For those who were unable to participate, here’s a recording of that meeting: https://nspa1.webex.com/nspa1/ldr.php?RCID=0cd376e7ffce4994755b7898d09b5bc3. Our next MRSE planning meeting will be held on February 13^th at 10:00 am.  We look forward to testing our Surge capabilities here in the region and seeing what specific areas we need to improve on moving forward.

For any questions about this MRSE Exercise or to be included in the planning process, you can reach out to one of our planning team members:

• RHCC Manager, Pat Meinen: pmeinen@vaems.org
• Hospital Readiness & Response Coordinator, Dan Gray: dgray@vaems.org
• Training & Exercise Coordinator, Monica McCullough: mmccullough@vaems.org