News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2010
MEDIA CONTACT: Joyce Brennan
Public Information Officer
Southcoast Health System
Phone: 508-961-5270
Fax: 508-961-5876
Pager: 508-387-9605
brennanj@southcoast.org
www.southcoast.org/news/releases/
Southcoast employees trained for emergency preparedness
40 Southcoast employees completed U.S. Homeland Security training in Alabama
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Some 40 employees of Southcoast Hospitals Group
successfully completed the Healthcare Leadership & Administrative Decision Making Course
provided and fully funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the Federal
Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP).
“Health care response during a disaster is part of an overall community response that
involves many agencies, departments and organizations on a local, state and federal level,” said
Patrick Gannon, RPh, Vice President of Quality & Safety for Southcoast Hospitals Group, who
also attended the training.
“Southcoast Hospitals conducts drills several times a year to make sure all of our staff
have sufficient emergency preparedness training,” Gannon said. “The FEMA training adds a new
dimension to our hospitals’ disaster planning and response. The key is to understand the extreme
stress a health care system can be under and have plans and procedures in place to respond
quickly and effectively to keep the health care system running smoothly during the disaster
situation.”
The Noble Army Hospital in Anniston, Ala., was converted in 1998 into a training site
for health and medical education in terrorism, manmade and natural disasters. The National
Training Facility (NTF) is the only hospital facility in the U.S. dedicated to training hospital and
health care professionals in disaster preparedness and response. Attendees received advanced
hands-on training by the country’s top-leaders in disaster preparedness. The training enables
participants to effectively prevent, respond to and recover from real-world incidents involving
acts of terrorism and other hazardous events. The four-day training included two days of lectures
and tabletop drills and two days of functional exercises that took place in a simulated hospital
environment.
The scenarios incorporated in the drills included infant abduction, mass casualities,
hazard chemical spill requiring decontamination of victims, bomb threat and small pox pandemic
response.
“A benefit of this type of preparedness is the ability to work as a team in various Incident
Management positions while using the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
protocols,” said Ray Price, Director of Safety & Security for Southcoast Hospitals, who also
attended the training. “These protocols allow the team to work in concert with EMS, first
responders and all state and federal agencies involved in the event.”
Southcoast had previously sent a number of individual employees to the NTF over the
past five years, but this was the first time the hospital had sent a large group to train at once. The
40 Southcoast participants represented various departments across the three hospital sites,
including the Emergency Departments, Radiology, Public Relations, Southcoast Home Care,
support services, leadership and more. The Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern
Massachusetts in Fall River, part of Southcoast Health System, also participated. Southcoast
invited representatives from other Massachusetts hospitals and agencies, including Sturdy
Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Nantucket Cottage Hospital in Nantucket and Environmental
Health & Engineering Inc. of Waltham.
“The training completed at the CDP ensures that these Southcoast employees gained
critical skills and the confidence to be better prepared to effectively respond to local incidents or
incidents potentially involving weapons of mass destruction along with our other Southcoast
colleagues and local emergency responders,” Price said. “We strongly encourage our local first
responders to consider this training, which is fully funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security and is beneficial to everyone in our community.”
The following Southcoast employees have completed Homeland Security training:
Listed by the employees’ primary hospital site and in alphabetical order.
Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River
Michael Cogliandro
Nutritional Services, Site Manager
Nadine Gomes
Imagining Services, Manager
Kelly Houde, RN
Southeast Rehabilitation
Peter Martelly, MD
OB/GYN, Medical Staff Director for Charlton Memorial Hospital
Karen Masse
Communications, Manager
Gilbert Mello, RN
Nursing Supervisor
Manuel Mello
Computer and Systems Coordinator
Materials and Distribution
William Tavares, RN
Emergency Department
David Teixeira
Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Manager
Lisa Young, RN
Professional Development
St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford
Christopher Darosa
Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Manager
Gregory DeLiberis
Nutritional Services, Site Manager
Robert Duval
Pharmacy Technician
Diana Howes, RN
Emergency Department
Louise Lecomte
Medical Staff Coordinator
Kellie Medeiros
Patient Care, Manager
Operating Room Services
Southcoast Hospitals Group
Michael Amaral
Environmental Services, Director
Michael Bachstein
Vice President of Facilities Development & Engineering
Joyce Brennan
Marketing & Public Relations, Public Information Officer
Sally Cabral
Administrative Assistant to the Vice President of Allied Health Services and the Vice President of
Clinical Services, Musculoskeletal, Neurosciences, Rehabilitation & Occupational Health
Vikki Cabral
Administrative Assistant to the Vice President of Quality & Safety
Janine Fontaine, RN
Maternity, Director
Patrick Gannon, RPh
Vice President of Quality & Safety
Jacqueline Garell
Administrative Assistant to the Chief Nursing Officer and the Chief Operating Officer
Dorothy Holmes, RN, MSN
Southcoast Home Care, Hospice & Palliative Care & Infusion
Carter Hunt
Vice President of Clinical Services, Musculoskeletal, Neurosciences, Rehabilitation &
Occupational Health
Ralph Ito, PhD
Laboratory, Administrative Director
Mark Kershaw
Nuclear Medicine, Manager
Tandra Mitra, MD
Infectious Disease Specialist (St. Luke’s & Tobey hospitals)
Kathleen Nelson, PT
Physical Therapist, Ergonomics Team Leader
Antonio Pacheco
Engineering & Maintenance, Director
Tania Picard
Corporate Compliance
H. Ray Price
Safety & Security, Director
Deborah Rideout, RN
Peri-operative Services, Director
David Rodriques, RN, MS
Clinical Nurse Manager
Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Massachusetts
Debra Santilli, RN, BN, MBA
Cardiac Surgery Services, Manager
Tobey Hospital in Wareham
J. Richard Donnellan, RN
Resource Nurse
Suzanne Robbins, RN
Emergency Department, Manager
Outside Participants
Jane Bonvini, RN
Vice President of Patient Services
Nantucket Cottage Hospital
David Denneno, RN
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Sturdy Memorial Hospital
Sean Gannon
Security/Police
Martha Lake-Greenfield, RN
Nurse Manager
Nantucket Cottage Hospital
Gena Koufos, RN
Emergency Management
Environmental Health & Engineering
About Southcoast Health System & Southcoast Hospitals Group
Southcoast Health System is a community based health delivery system with multiple
access points, offering an integrated continuum of health services throughout Southeastern
Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes the three hospitals that make up
Southcoast Hospitals Group — Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke’s Hospital in
New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
Southcoast provides advanced clinical services, such as open heart surgery, angioplasty
and heart rhythm services, comprehensive cancer care, neurosurgery, weight loss surgery,
orthopedic surgery and advanced imaging services and is the only provider of maternity services
in the region. Southcoast is a not-for-profit charitable organization that depends on the support of
the community to provide services.
More information is available online at www.southcoast.org.
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