Saint Anthony official leads areawide hospital preparedness effort

Don Hess elected chairman of district
emergency planning group

CROWN POINT Don Hess just expanded his credentials as a leader in Northwest Indiana’s emergency services field.
Hess, who for 10 years has served as manager of Saint Anthony Medical Center’s Emergency Medical Services Academy-Provider Organization, recently was elected chairman of the District 1 Hospital Emergency Planning Committee Inc. Hess said teHhhhh he group consists of 14 hospitals representing Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties that work to coordinate preparedness efforts to deal with crises.
“In an emergency situation, we’re all in this together,” said Hess, a paramedic who has been at Saint Anthony for 13 years and in his field for 26. “We do training so that all hospitals are at the same level of preparedness, so we can help each other.’’
The committee formed about 2.5 years ago, Hess said, as an offshoot of a regional bioterrorism planning group that came about as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“We were formed to help better handle funding (most of which is federal) and grants and to look at our emergency response efforts more as a district than separate hospitals,’’ he said, adding the committee meets monthly with the bioterrorism group.
Among its duties, the committee deals with disaster preparation, training, equipment stockpiles and maintaining pharmaceutical supplies.
“We work to strengthen what goes on in the district so that in case of a disaster, we know what we can do for our communities,’’ Hess said. “I see a lot of opportunity to make this group grow and to provide better emergency services to those communities.’’