PARIS — The Maine Veterans’ Home South Paris leadership team received the Oxford County Emergency Management Planning Committee’s “Facility Of The Year” award for its outstanding efforts in planning, reporting and exercising during 2018..
According to Teresa Glick, deputy director of the Oxford County Emergency Planning Committee, in addition to continuing to update their plan, staff conducted a Hazard Vulnerability Analysis to better understand their hazards, and collaborated with first responders for input on upgrades and additions to the physical security systems on site. The also rolled out a new sign-in and tagging system at the Home to maintain better accountability of all visitors.

MVH staff were active with training and exercise throughout 2018. They participated in a Coalition Surge Test exercise, which simulated evacuation and relocation of patients from one site to other facilities within the region. Staff also participated in ALICE – Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Lockdown, Counter – an active shooter training where they learned best practices and strategies to respond to a threat in their workplace. Lastly, they participated in a regional water district exercise that prompted them to look at how they would maintain operations in the event their water systems would be unavailable or under a boil water notice.

“All of this planning and training was put to the test in early 2019, when a real world propane leak occurred at the home,” Glick said in the letter. “Staff were able to react quickly using the procedures outlines in their plan and the relationships created previously with their first responders allowed for a seamless integration into their command structure once they arrived on scene. Although it was a longer duration incident, there were no injuries and no major issues during the response, which is a cred to all their hard work over the previous two years.”

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