News briefs: Ross County LEPC to hold full-scale exercise Wednesday

Chillicothe Gazette
·4 min read

CHILLICOTHE -- The Ross County Emergency Management Agency/Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) is sponsoring a full-scale exercise on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at four separate locations in the Chillicothe area.

This exercise will provide local participants with an opportunity to assess capabilities, plans, policies, and procedures regarding a simulated emergency. It will focus on decision-making, coordination, and integration with other organizations during a hazardous materials release. The expected outcome of the exercise is to better Ross County first responder coordination, and to increase communication and support for emergency operations.

Scenario: A tanker truck stopped at an intersection is leaking something, and it is making a white mist that is causing people’s eyes to burn. In addition to the chemical release, the incident will simulate the injury of persons nearby and these simulated persons will need to be decontaminated, triaged, and treated.

The exercise will be occurring at four separate locations in the Chillicothe area:

  • Ross Co Service Center, 475 Western Ave

  • Chillicothe VA Medical Center, 17273 Ohio 104

  • Adena Regional Medical Center, 272 Hospital Road

  • American Red Cross South Central Ohio Chapter, 181 N. Bridge St.

If you are in the area on Wednesday, April 26, and see first responder vehicles, remember this isonly an exercise and not a real event.

For more information on this exercise, contact Ross County Emergency Management Agency at740-773-1700.

Unioto to perform 'The Little Mermaid Jr.'

The Unioto Drama Club will present its spring musical, Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr. with music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and the book by Doug Wright.

The cast of performers is made up of students from sixth through 12th grades. Club advisors Frank Elliott and Maureen Simon are extremely proud of this year’s hard-working cast of under-the-sea swimming students, as well as the student leaders including Delaney Lovensheimer, Madison Watson, Aurora Lemaster, and Larissa Thompson.

“This year, we have added 22 new intelligent and specialty lighting fixtures, a couple of surprises, tons of costumes, and multiple large set pieces,” said Elliott. “Our drama program is young, but we plan to ‘PLUS IT’ each year, as Walt Disney called it, taking things to the next level.”

There will be two performances open to the public this Friday and Saturday, April 28 and 29 at the Unioto Auditeria. Doors will open at 6:30 pm and the show begins at 7 pm. Tickets will be available at the door for $7 for the general public and $5 for students. Snack refreshments and cast gifts will be on sale.

VA announces reset of Electronic Health Record Project

CHILLICOTHE – On Friday, April 21, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that future deployments of the new Electronic Health Record (EHR) will be halted while we prioritize improvements at the five sites that currently use the new EHR, as part of a larger program reset.

During this reset, VA will fix the issues with the EHR that were identified during the recent “assess and address” period, continue to listen to Veterans and clinicians about their experience with the EHR, and redirect resources to focus on optimizing the EHR at the sites where it is currently in use: Spokane VA Health Care System, VA Walla Walla Health Care, Roseburg VA Health Care System, VA Southern Oregon Health Care, and VA Central Ohio Health Care System.

Additional deployments will not be scheduled until VA is confident that the new EHR is highly functioning at current sites and ready to deliver for Veterans and VA clinicians at future sites. This readiness will be demonstrated by clear improvements in the clinician and Veteran experience; sustained high performance and high reliability of the system itself; improved levels of productivity at the sites where the EHR is in use; and more. When these criteria have been met and the reset period concludes, VA will release a new deployment schedule and re-start deployment activities.

This reset follows an extended pause in deployments that began in July 2022, culminating in an “assess and address” period that identified a lengthy list of necessary fixes. VA has already begun to work through these and other issues and will work closely with Oracle Cerner to address all remaining issues.

VA and Oracle Cerner are currently working toward an amended contract that will increase Oracle Cerner’s accountability to deliver a high-functioning, high-reliability, world-class EHR system. Also, as part of the re-set, VA will work with Congress on resource requirements. VA estimates FY 2023 costs will be reduced by $400 million.

The modernized EHR will replace VA’s current Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) to document and support all aspects of Veteran health care. For more information about VA’s overall EHR modernization effort, visit https://www.ehrm.va.gov/.

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: News briefs: Ross County LEPC to hold full-scale exercise Wednesday