MDH EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & RESPONSE NEWS
MARCH 2015
From the Director
Welcome to the first edition of MDH Emergency Preparedness & Response (EPR) News. The MDH Preparedness
Newsletter known as Ready to Respond served us well for a number of years, and we are grateful to all who contributed their time and energy to make that Newsletter the success it was. As you will see in the Organizational
Change article that appears on page 2, new names and organizational structures have been introduced at MDH since the start of
the year, so this seemed a fitting time to transition to a new tool for communicating with our partners—hence EPR News came to
be. Starting with the next issue, Cheryl Petersen-Kroeber will be providing the Director’s message.
Our intent is to publish the EPR News on a bi-monthly basis, and limit the publication length to two pages. Typically, each issue will
include one or two brief feature articles, updates regarding MDH emergency preparedness and response staffing, information
about preparedness mobile apps, and upcoming events. Eventually we may move to publishing the EPR News on a monthly basis.
We hope this new publication and format works for you!
Jane
EBOLA RESPONSE
MDH began monitoring travelers returning from the three Ebola-affected countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) in late October, 2014. Late Tuesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, Kristen Ehresmann, Division Director of IDEPC, was thinking about the
salted caramel chocolate pecan pie she would be making that evening to take to Thanksgiving dinner. Her sweet contemplations
were interrupted when she was notified that MDH monitoring staff had contacted a newly returned traveler and when they
reached him his response had been, “I am so glad you called. I was going to call 911.” The traveler had fever, vomiting and diarrhea, all clinical symptoms compatible with Ebola.
MDH staff helped to arrange EMS transport for this patient—and stayed on the line with him until they arrived. They also contacted Unity Hospital—one of four hospitals in Minnesota that has prepared to assess and treat an Ebola patient—to apprise them
they would be receiving a patient.
Caring for a patient under investigation for Ebola represents a huge commitment for the hospitals involved. Unity had to put their
emergency room on divert in order to safely receive the patient; they established a special route through the hospital to move the
patient to the intensive care isolation room with no potential exposure to other patients. They also invested many hours of staff
preparation to practice putting on and taking off personal protective equipment.
Continued on page 2
Inside this Edition
From the Director, Ebola Response, Organizational Changes, Upcoming Events
PHONE: 651-201-5700
FAX: 651-201-5720
[email protected]
EBOLA RESPONSE
Continued from page 1
Once the patient was en route, MDH sent a number of staff to the hospital to provide technical assistance, as caring for an Ebola
patient is complex. We sent our laboratory staff, to assist with specimen collection and packaging for transport, as the specimen
would be tested at MDH. The Public Health Laboratory was one of twelve labs in the country with the ability to test for Ebola at
that time. We sent our medical director to provide technical assistance to the hospital. Infection prevention staff were on site to
assist the hospital staff in ensuring that they were safely donning and doffing their personal protective equipment.
Back at MDH, staff were busy with a number of different activities: contacting the governor’s office, contacting CDC and LHD partners, preparing to interview the patient to identify potential contacts, and preparing for a potential press conference within a few
hours. Because the EMS staff were donning their PPE in the parking lot of the apartment building, we needed to reach out to the
apartment management to apprise them that the situation did not represent a risk to their residents. We worked with police to
appropriately cordon off the apartment since we didn’t want anyone entering because of the potential for exposure.
It was 9:53 p.m. when the call came from the laboratory that the test was negative. While we weren’t out of the woods yet -- a
patient needs to have a negative test at or after 72 hours of symptoms to be certain the individual is negative—it was good news.
It was 11:00 p.m. when we were able to head home that night. Needless to say Kris’ family got frozen pie for Thanksgiving!
We tested the patient again on Wednesday—he was negative. MDH laboratory staff arranged to collect the final specimen from
the hospital at 7:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. When those results came back negative you can imagine the large numbers of truly
thankful people!
Organizational Changes
Preparedness
Apps for
Mobile Devices
Psychological First Aid Tutorial
Easy to use resource for: first
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others.
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Download this app today:
http://sph.umn.edu/ce/perl/
mobile/pfatutorial/
With the January 2, 1015 retirement of Aggie Leitheiser, Assistant Commissioner of the Health
Protection Bureau, several changes were made to the agency organizational structure to make
sure MDH is organized to efficiently carry out its mission. The most noteworthy changes have
included:

The merging of the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) and the Office of Performance Improvement (OPI) into one new division called the Health Partnerships Division
(HPart).

Name changes for the offices within the new division; OEP is now the section of Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR), and OPI is now the section of Public Health Practice
(PHP).

The creation of a new Health Systems Bureau, headed by Assistant Commissioner Manny
Munson-Regala; it is within this bureau that the Health Partnership Division is located.
Leadership within the Health Partnerships Division is now taking shape. Deb Burns, who most
recently directed OPI, was appointed the director for the division, and Jane Braun, who has
been serving as the director of OEP, has accepted the position of assistant division director for
HPart. Former OEP deputy director, Cheryl Petersen-Kroeber has accepted the position of
manager of Emergency Preparedness and Response; and former OPI assistant director LuAnne
McNichols has accepted the Public Health Practice section manager job .
To see the new organizational structure at MDH, visit: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/
Important Dates
May 6, 2015 ------- South Central Emergency Preparedness Conference ----- Mankato ---- [email protected]
May 19-20, 2015 --------Under One Roof Conference ------- Duluth --------- http://www.underonerooftwinports.com/