NVERS Hosts VDH Regional Highly Infectious Disease Tabletop Exercises

On June 12 and June 14, 2024 NVERS facilitated the delivery of two (2) Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Highly Infectious Disease Tabletop Exercises (TTXs). The exercises brought together hospital, public health, emergency medical services, emergency management, and state and federal partners to work through a scenario involving ebola patients. The exercises also included state-designated special pathogen treatment hospital partners from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and federally-designated Regional Emergency Special Pathogen Treatment Center partners from MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Exercise participants discussed information sharing, coordination of patient care and ancillary support, and allocation of scarce resources during a special pathogens response. Lessons learned from the exercises included the value of continued interdisciplinary planning for special pathogens response, the importance of regional resources such as personal protective equipment (PPE) caches and patient isolation systems, and additional refinement of housing and transport processes for suspected special pathogens patients. NVERS would like to thank the University of Virginia Health System and the Inova Health System for serving as exercise host sites.  Once completed, an After-Action Report (AAR) will be shared with all participating agencies and facilities.