Hospitals Braced For High Alert

Jan. 1, 2004
By LISA GRZYBOSKI, Staff Writer; lgrzyboski@thedailyjournal.com

Cumberland County's hospitals received a temporary addition to their emergency rooms early Wednesday morning -- decontamination units.

Deployed at the order of the N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services in response to the nation's heightened terror alert, the units at South Jersey Healthcare's hospitals in Vineland and Bridgeton are meant only as a precautionary measure, said Glenn Nickerson, a county spokesman.

However, coming just days after armed law enforcement officers were posted at Millville Municipal Airport, they also served as an unsettling reminder of the orange, or second-highest, alert level the nation has faced this holiday season.

Positioned exactly in front of South Jersey Healthcare, Newcomb Hospital's emergency room entrance, almost for dramatic effect, the blue-roofed decontamination tent was erected by Vineland's Haz-Mat team between 7:30 and 9 a.m. The health system's Bridgeton hospital received the county's only decontamination trailer.

The portable units were necessary since neither facility has a permanent decontamination area, although that will change once the Regional Medical Center in Vineland opens in August. The emergency department there has a specialized decontamination room for patients imperiled by exposure to chemicals and bioterrorism agents.

The concept behind such units is simple.

A contaminated person must be completely cleansed with water, and sometimes bleach and away from healthy people, before he or she can get medical attention. Plus, the water must be collected so that there is no runoff into public areas or the local sewer system.

"It's not to get people alarmed, but it's a preparatory phase in case we have to go to red alert," said Max Meng, spokesman for South Jersey Healthcare.

It's apparently an action hospitals across New Jersey were strongly urged to take.

In a conference call with hospitals and emergency management offices Tuesday, the state health department specifically asked all medical facilities with decontamination capabilities to use them.

"It's a way to exercise all of these capabilities on a regular basis," said Dr. Cliffton R. Lacy, Commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services. "Every time now that we go to orange or higher alert, we will recommend they use them, especially around the holidays."

The practice gives emergency workers opportunities for enhancement, or fine-tuning, so in the event something does happen, people will be prepared.

"It's one thing to have a good plan, but it's not good enough unless you train people," Lacy explained.

The units will remain in place until Friday morning in most cases, he added.

Meanwhile, county security officials are not urging residents to do anything extraordinary out of fear of a terrorist attack.

County Prosecutor Ronald Casella, who is coordinating Cumberland's homeland security efforts, said he is rightly cautious, but not overly worried.

"I don't know that there is really much that people can do," he said, "because I don't know if you can project any specific threat that may or may not occur."

When asked how he replies when people inquire about how to prepare, Casella said he sometimes responds by saying, "It wouldn't hurt to say a few prayers."

Staff Writer Joe McLaughlin contributed to this report.

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