South Carolina Healthcare Emergency
Amateur Radio Team (SCHEART)
Training Workshop

Purpose:

The purpose of this workshop is to train Public Health Preparedness Directors and the ham radio operators who will provide backup communication support for hospitals in South Carolina.  This training will assign radio response teams to local hospitals and establish procedures for activating these teams.  Attendees will work through hospital training requirements, credentialing issues, message handling and exercise planning goals.  In addition, the SCHEART training staff will cover operating procedures, proper radio etiquette, radio checks and net control responsibilities. 

Program Objectives:

• To train and assign hospital radio response teams
• To address hospital training requirements
• To establish procedures for activating radio teams
• To discuss training expectations during drills and exercises
• To familiarize trainees with ham radio equipment
• To train radio response team members to handle messages to support the emergency response
• To provide opportunities for on-the-air communications

Who Should Attend:

1. Public Health Preparedness Directors
2. A maximum of three radio response team members for each hospital
3. A maximum of three radio response team members from the local ham radio community to support each hospital

Additional volunteers will be available to support hospitals that do not have commitments from local hams in their communities.  Also, it is highly recommended that hospital employees who will participate on radio response teams attend, although they may not be able to participate in on-the-air communication exercises.

Date: Will be coordinated through the regional Public Health Preparedness Directors. 

Cost: All training materials will be provided by the USC Center for Public Health Preparedness (USC-CPHP), the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) and the South Carolina Educational Television (ETV) network.

Register at: Register by contacting the USC-CPHP at  803-978-7570 or e-mail dease@sc.edu.

Local Site: Training location will be determined at a later date.  Registered participants will be notified as soon as the location is confirmed.

Prerequisite: The radio response team leader at each hospital will be required to provide the following items in advance. Please contact USC-CPHP and the proper forms will be sent to you:

1. A list of Radio Response Team volunteers. (Name, call sign, address, phone, e-mail)
2. Equipment Inventory.

For questions concerning information on this flyer, please contact Bill Dease, USC-CPHP at 803-978-7570, or e-mail dease@sc.edu or visit: www.sph.sc.edu/acphp/scheart.htm.