Just a heads up:  the next Quarterly Triage Day (QTD) Drill will take place Friday, March 9 starting at 8 AM.  We’ll send full information out later, but there are two things you may want to look into ahead of time:

·        A number of agencies had issues when they attempted to use the MARCS radio MCI Talk Groups during the last QTD Drill.  You should have already received the message from our four regional communications committee chairs, asking each agency to provide a copy of the codeplug (electronic programming) and/or template for their radios so that we can help identify corrections or trainings needed.  If you haven’t already done, so, please send that information to Lt. David Andes at david.andes@daytonohio.gov.

• We will begin adding use of OHTrac during QTDs in March.  OHTrac is optional for EMS agencies, but if you’d like to get on board, here is more information about OHTrac from the Ohio EMS website:

Ø  During a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI), patient tracking for the purpose of family reunification is an important consideration in the management of the incident.  A statewide patient tracking program called OHTrac was developed several years ago for this purpose. The Ohio Hospital Association and Ohio Department of Health recently completed the initial rollout of a new patient tracking APP, titled OHTrac, that is specifically designed for fire / EMS responders.

Ø  Hospitals throughout the state have been using a web-based version of OHTrac for several years. The APP version was designed for pre-hospital fire / EMS providers to use on cell a phone or tablet in the field to begin the patient tracking process. The Apple and Droid version of the APP is available to download for free and there is no charge for access to the OHTrac system.

Ø  The OHTrac APP has been piloted in the field by fire/EMS responders from multiple regions throughout the state during full-scale exercises. From feedback received from these pilot programs, the OHTrac APP was further refined. The APP is intuitive in use and only requires about 30-40 minutes of training. A PowerPoint training program available below will allow fire/EMS personnel to be easily trained during a shift or at a group or individual training session. There are only three required fields for fire / EMS providers to enter a patient using the OHTrac APP:

1.       a triage number, which can be scanned into the proper data field from a bar-coded triage tag,

2.       triage level, and

3.       patient gender.

Ø  Use of the OHTrac APP can also assist the triage officer in designating the proper hospital(s) to be transported. The pilot studies have shown hospitals receive notice of the number and severity of patients that are being transported to their facility by using OHTrac prior to formal verbal communication from the scene.

Ø  Best practices when implementing the use of the OHTrac app for patient tracking has shown that integration of using the APP in cooperation with the local hospital(s) is instrumental to a successful program. The materials available at the link will also reference you to the appropriate Regional Hospital Coordinator who will be able to provide you with a local hospital contact and access to the OHTrac system.

·         Click HERE to download a PowerPoint presentation about the app.

 

Remember, training materials on QTDs for both hospitals and EMS are available at http://gmvemsc.org/training-mcicomm.html.