Practical Considerations for setting up a COMMUNITY RECEPTION CENTER (CRC) Part 1

1. Practical Considerations for setting up aCOMMUNITY RECEPTION CENTER (CRC)Part 1 Armin Ansari, PhD. CHP Radiation Studies Branch Division of Environmental Hazards & Health Effects National Center for Environmental Health Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Atlanta, Georgia

2. The New York Times, October 2, 2005

3. Community Reception Center (CRC) What? When? Who? Where? How? Examples

4. Typical Reception Center for NPP EPZ Consider: • Communities outside EPZ • Terrorism (no warning) • Large urban populations

5. POD Design

6. Community Reception Center (CRC) • Basic services include: • external contamination screening • external decontamination • registration • prioritizing people for further care • Benefits include: • reducing burden on hospitals • managing scarce medical resources • supporting shelters • CRC may be co-located with shelters (congregate Care Center)

7. Community Reception CenterAdditional Services • Monitoring for internal contamination • Collection of Bioassays • Medical intervention for decorporation • Counseling • Relocation services • Pet monitoring Add modules as resources become available.

8. Community Reception Center Process Flow • 6 Main Process Areas • Initial Sorting • First Aid • Survey and Monitoring • Wash Station • Registration and Dose/Medical Assessment • Discharge Contamination Control Zone Clean Zone

9. Resources • Population Monitoring Guide • Virtual CRC, an interactive web-based training (downloadable) • RealOpt–CRC optimization software • CRC-STEP, Simulation Tool for Evaluation and Planning • All are customizable

10. Community Reception Center (CRC)Planning and Implementation Whose responsibility is it?

11. National Response FrameworkNuclear/Radiological Incident Annex Decontamination/Population Monitoring are: “the responsibility of State, local, and tribal governments.”

12. Population Monitoring at CRCs • Multi-agency effort, public health lead • Staffed by government employees and organized volunteers • Opened 24-48 hours post event • Located outside of hot zone • Comparable to PODs, NEHCs • Need radiation protection professionals!

13. Need for Radiation Professionalsin a large scale radiation emergency • Monitoring environment and workplace • Monitoring people • Supporting operations at: • Hospitals • Public and special needs shelters • Emergency operations centers • Community reception centers • Etc. • Communications A Local Effort?!

14. Where Does Radiation Expertise Come From? • State? • Federal? • Mutual Aid? • Local community?

15. State Volunteer Registry Radiation Control Program State boundary MRC Jurisdiction Radiation Volunteers General/Public Health/Medical Volunteers Medical Reserve Corps – rad volunteer model MRC 2 MRC 3 MRC 4 MRC 1

16. Current Status • CRCPD / CDC collaboration on radiation professional volunteers • Program being implemented in six states and one metro area.

17. “Planners should identify radiation protection professionals in their community and encourage them to volunteer and register in any one of the Citizen Corps or similar programs in their community.” Chapter 5

18. Example • CRC exercise in metro Atlanta community • Scenario: • 3 days after an IND 600 miles away • Displaced population seeking assistance in our community • Used a pre-designated POD location (high school) • Players were primarily MRC volunteers, assisted by county HAZMAT, public health, and radiation control

19. High School Floor Plan Consistent with POD planning

20. MRC GEM – July 2009Community Reception Center atPeachtree Ridge High School, Suwanee, GA

21. Thank You Armin Ansari 770-488-3654 AAnsari@cdc.gov Radiation Studies Branch Division of Environmental Hazards & Health Effects National Center for Environmental Health Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Atlanta, Georgia