Texas Children’s is proud to be the only pediatric Radiation Injury Treatment Network (RITN) center in Texas. Together with Baylor, we also lead a consortium of experts from across the Gulf Coast named the Gulf-7 Pediatric Disaster Network (G7) – one of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence.
As leaders in this network, we will host an emergency preparedness exercise on Thursday, June 22, mainly on the fourth floor of the Pavilion for Women. Don’t be surprised when you see an extra 50 children and parent volunteers walking the halls. Along with some community partners, they will help us simulate a patient surge during a radiologic incident.
This exercise will put our operations and skills to the test, so we can be ready for anything. Don’t worry, there’s no specific existing threat we’re preparing for; this is just one of the many things we’re doing as part of our emergency preparedness.
“As a leader in emergency preparedness for the Gulf Coast, we’re excited to host this exercise to help our organization and others learn how to be ready for disaster,” said Dr. Brent Kaziny, Medical Director of Emergency Management. “It’s our privilege and responsibility to ensure we continue to learn how to deliver the best care while keeping people safe during a crisis.”
There will be a follow-up story on Connect to share how it went and what we learned.
Multiple departments across the organization, as well as outside partners (South East Texas Regional Advisory Council (SETRAC) and Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services (TEEX)) will participate in the exercise.
Participating departments
- RITN
- Chaplaincy
- Child Life
- Communications (Internal and External)
- Emergency Center Nursing
- Organizational Resilience
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Facilities Operations
- House Supervisor
- Language Services
- Pathology/ Laboratory
- Patient and Family Services
- Patient Registration/Finance
- Radiation Safety
- Security
- Social Work
- Child Life
- Baylor Medical Team