Salt Lake Valley Health Department Utilizes irms|EM™ Emergency Management System to Ensure Community Health

Client Profile:

The Salt Lake Valley Health Department is responsible for the safety and health of the almost one million residents in the North Central Health Response Region, including Salt Lake County, as well as Summit and Tooele Counties. They provide public health clinics, immunization programs, vital records storage, STI/HIV testing, health inspections, and are responsible for ensuring the region is ready in prepared for public health emergencies.

When the SLVHD has to prioritize the health of its residents during a public health disaster, they turn to Upp Technology’s irms|EM™ Emergency Management to provide real-time data on medical supplies and distribution, including deployment using the irms|GOKIT™ Mobile Logistics Platform.

Solution:

Under the Homeland Security Emergency Support Function 8 (ESF 8), the SLVHD, collaborating with the Utah Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assume the lead role in coordinating services to meet the health and medical needs of the population of Salt Lake County during a disaster or public health emergency.

Utilizing irms|EM, emergency response teams are able to assess the public health and medical needs, health and medical equipment, patient care, and evacuation, including medical special needs shelters, all in real-time with accurate data management from over 100 Points of Distribution (PODs).

With Upp Technology’s irms|EM, the SLVHD is able to track existing warehouse supplies and account for incoming Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) supplies, while taking the SNS supplies and dividing and shipping from Receiving, Staging, and Storage (RSS) sites to PODs.

irms|EM provides scalability to manage an emergency on any scale, simultaneously supporting multiple facilities over a large geographical area. The system provides management and tracking not only of bar coded inventory, but also badge-wearing staff, first responders and volunteers, as well as patients wearing bar coded triage wristbands.

By electing to deploy irms|EM for inventory and patient management using the irms|GOKIT, SLVHD’s emergency preparedness and response solution is able to function most anywhere without Internet or server support. The irms|GOKIT can operate in a standalone environment lacking external connectivity and be operational within 15 minutes of deployment.

The proven success of the irms|EM system can be found in the support exercises supervised by the Upp Technology team, such as the SLVHD’s “Eagle’s Landing” drill, incorporating over 600 participants working through a staged triage event and including both patient management and medical supplies distribution. By conducting such exercises, the SLVHD can practice using irms|EM and be assured of maximum preparedness.

Business Value:

During a pandemic, natural disaster, or manmade event requiring large-scale disaster response being able to manage patients, supplies, and volunteers side by side in real-time is crucial for the SLVHD. The continuous visibility and tracking offered by irms|EM and bar code scanning increases the SLVHD’s efficiency and patient throughput. And Upp Technology’s exercise support and other services ensure the SLVHD and first responders are ready when it matters most.