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HOSPITALS ARCHIVES

Hi-Tech Food Banks & the Safety of Food Supply Chains

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, more than one-third of adults across the United States are part of the “obesity epidemic.” The most important “nutritional” problem facing American consumers, though, might not be calories but contamination. This is particularly true of the billions of pounds of food

Aligning Priorities with Healthcare Coalitions

Growth in the number and capabilities of the nation’s healthcare coalitions will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future – as will the operational capabilities of those coalitions. Helping that growth, and making the coalitions both more capable and more cost-effective, is a new plan (going into effect this summer) to

CBRN FUNDING: Going Backwards Is Not Smart

The huge budget problems now facing the nation are on a collision course with the rapidly escalating possibility of new CBRN incidents and events that could devastate entire communities. A distinguished former Department of Defense program official puts the dilemma into context and provides several useful guidelines to follow.

New HazMat Challenges for Modern EMS Units

In today’s increasingly complex and ever more dangerous world, EMS units in U.S. communities both large and small are learning to cope with a broad spectrum of mass-casualty incidents and events never before encountered by their predecessors. Here are a few common-sense cost, training, political, legal, and operational suggestions that

Advances in Medical Countermeasures for Chemical Terrorism

With the potential to kill thousands in a single attack, chemical warfare agents have been an ongoing threat to nations around the world since World War I. Although efforts have been made to reduce the production and stockpiling of these deadly chemicals, there remains a need not only to stockpile

Hospital Preparedness for ‘Chemical/Detergent’ Suicides

  The Hospital Accreditation Standards established by The Joint Commission, and followed by almost all of the nation’s healthcare facilities, mandate that U.S. hospitals should be prepared to decontaminate patients who have been exposed to hazardous materials. However, although thousands of incidents involving hazardous materials occur annually in the United

Addiction in Emergency Services: Coworkers Help, Denial Hurts

Major stress and constant pressure are all part of the job for emergency-services personnel and other responders. A less obvious but greater danger is caused by drug and alcohol addictions. Professional help is available, but not always wanted. What is most needed, and in the long term most effective, is

Forensic Incident Responses & Security Preparedness

Eight “Centers of Excellence” established; a massive international “Challenge” competition; and a stunning, rapidly expanding, interest in the once arcane science and profession of digital forensics and various related fields. Those are but a few of the notable DC3 accomplishments achieved to date, but additional domains and designations are just

The Most Dangerous Existential Threat: Illegal Drugs

The flow of illegal drugs from Mexico into the United States is not a mere “problem” that affects only a few U.S. states along the U.S.-Mexico border, but rather a major national-security threat. Here, a former chief of the U.S. National Guard spells out the complicated details of this clear

PTSD: The Front Lines of a New Conflict

The “save rate” of military personnel wounded in battle used to be extremely low. Now it is much higher, thanks in large part to better medicine and improved medical transport (ambulances and helicopters, primarily). However, one unanticipated result has been a huge increase in the survival of personnel suffering from

Lessons Learned: The Mass Shootings in Tucson

In the violent world of the 21st century, there is no way to absolutely guarantee the safety of any one individual – for example, a Congresswoman holding a press conference at a Safeway without security. But, if nothing else, the senseless shooting last year of U.S. Representative Gabriel Giffords and

Narcan: The Spray That Saves

First question: Should “everyday citizens” – however that term is defined – be given access to potentially harmful medications, including antidotes to dangerous narcotics? Well, perhaps. Second question: What if the medication also saves lives? Now the answer is a much more emphatic “perhaps”. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is working

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