MOUNT VERNON — Reunification is essential to school safety, and the Knox County Emergency Management Agency plays a key role in helping local schools create a plan.
Other districts are noticing.
Knox County EMA hosted a regional school reunification presentation on May 3 at Mount Vernon City Schools’ Energy Field House.
“They like what we’ve done in Knox County with our planning,” EMA Director James T. DeChant told the county commissioners on Thursday. “They like our facility.
“We know not everyone has the facility that we do, but we wanted to show them what they could do.”
Related to reunification is patient tracking. Tracking software is critical in locating a person who is injured and transported to a health care facility during an incident.
The Ohio Department of Health offers a software platform, EMResource and EMTrack, that emergency responders can use in a mass incident, whether at a school or in the community.
“The patient’s information is entered, and then we can track where they go,” Amy Seward, assistant EMA director, explained. “We can use that for reunification.”
Officials used the software during a November 2023 Licking County bus accident. Seward said officials also used it on a limited basis in the aftermath of the March Indian Lake tornado.
“Ultimately, the responsibility does lie on the hospital, but when it’s an emergency, it’s an emergency response,” she said.
Knox Community Hospital has the software, but Seward said insufficient people are trained on it. EMA will train local first responders, EMS personnel, and hospital staff.
The software also shows the patient bed status at KCH, Morrow County, and the Central Oho region.
“It helps with diversion,” DeChant explained. “If Columbus has trauma beds filled, we know in advance to divert patients elsewhere.”
Training exercises
EMA held a tabletop exercise today for Mount Vernon officials with the theme of July 4th fireworks. DeChant said the exercise will lead to planning the city wants to do for downtown events such as First Friday and the Music & Arts Festival.
EMA staff plans to work with the Knox County Fair Board on training exercises such as a livestock trailer rollover and if a large-scale weather event occurs during fair week.
“People are being more and more removed from agriculture and they just don’t know how to work with animals,” Seward said of the trailer rollover exercise.
Amish task force
Seward continues working with Ashland and Morrow counties to teach local Amish communities health and safety.
Previous topics include smoke detectors and CPR, both of which the Amish communities received well. Other topics include vaccines, women’s health, buggy laws, road safety, and how to manage overheating batteries on e-bikes.
Miscellaneous
Other EMA activities include:
•Distributing citizen aid kits and cabinets to seven partners in the Health Care Coalition
•Received an additional $13,201 from an Emergency Management Performance Grant
•Hosted a critical incident session for the Ohio Tactical Officers Association for “boots-on-the-ground” officers