Pittsburg County received very high marks in a Thursday audit to determine the county’s readiness in case part of the nation’s stockpile of medicines needs to be brought here in response to a major health incident.
Pittsburg County Health Department Director Mike Echelle related how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s representative said it was one of the highest scores received by a local community.
The score was a 98, out of a possible 100.
“The audit went very well,” Echelle said Thursday afternoon, after the audit by the CDC, U.S. Marshals’ Service and Oklahoma State Department of Health was completed.
“We received a very favorable score.”
Echelle said he was “extremely pleased,” with the results of the audit.
Evaluators were impressed with the activities that Pittsburg County has done to prepare for a disaster. Some preparations dated back several years to 2002, when a bioterrorism exercise called “Sooner Spring” brought international attention to the McAlester area.
Another example of local agencies preparing in case mass immunizations or distribution of medicines are needed was the large drive-through flu vaccination program and exercise held at the Southeast Expo in 2007.
A total of 11 local agencies had at least one representative at the audit on Thursday morning, including the Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Department, McAlester Police Department, McAlester Regional Health Center, Pittsburg County Office of Emergency Management, and the Pittsburg County Health Department.
Other agencies represented included the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, Oklahoma Department of Corrections, state Department of Mental Health, Kiowa Public Schools, Eastern Oklahoma State College’s student nursing program and the Pittsburg County Local Emergency Planning Committee.
It would be the local county health department’s job to take the lead role if there were a serious medical outbreak that required a large shift of medicines to Pittsburg County.
Pandemic flu is one example. It refers to an epidemic covering a large geographical area affecting a large population.
The county health department would work with other “stakeholder” groups to provide services which would be needed in case of such an outbreak.
John Yates is the news director for McAlester Radio.
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County gets high marks in national health audit
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