Disaster Resource Center

Unexpected events happen every day. Preparing yourself, your family, your workplace and your community to respond effectively is just the smart thing to do. PIH Health is here to help. We’re part of Los Angeles County’s Disaster Resource Center (DRC) network.

Getting Ready for the Unexpected

Even if we can’t predict the future, we can be ready for the many types of emergencies—natural and manmade—that are likely to happen at some time. Maybe it’s an earthquake or a multi-car train wreck. We might experience disasters like the Boston Marathon bombing or a large natural gas explosion. No matter where we live in Southern California, we need to be prepared.

The health of thousands of people may be affected by a large-scale disaster or emergency. Responding quickly across the great distances and different landscapes found in our county requires the coordinated efforts of many hospitals and healthcare systems.

LA County Disaster Resource Centers

Thirteen major hospitals, trauma centers and/or emergency management base stations now serve as Disaster Resource Centers (DRC) for residents of Los Angeles County. They are:

• PIH Health Whittier Hospital
  
• California Hospital
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• Henry Mayo Newhall
• Kaiser-Sunset
• LAC-Harbor-UCLA
• LAC-USC Medical Center
• Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
• Pomona Valley Medical Center
• Providence St. Joseph Medical Center
• St. Mary Medical Center
• UCLA Medical Center

Every DRC serves as an umbrella for a group of hospitals, clinics and provider agencies in their geographic area. As a DRC, PIH Health works with 8 hospitals, clinics and provider agencies in the surrounding area to develop plans for handling emergencies in our area and across the county. We use the national system—the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS)—for fast and coordinated response involving all agencies.

We set up clear communication procedures, and we continually test our team members through frequent drills, hands-on training sessions and regular meetings. That means you can rely on the Disaster Resource Center at PIH Health Hospital – Whittier to help you prepare for emergencies.

How to Prepare Your Family & Home

Download these checklists to start helping your family respond quickly and safely in the event of a large-scale disaster or emergency.

• Family Communications Plan
• 10 Essential Items for an Emergency Kit
• Pandemic Flu Planning Checklist

Check out the TotallyUnprepared.com website for online information from the TV show. Use this information to help you prepare your family and home for earthquakes and other emergencies.

Find out more about emergency/disaster preparation from the U.S. federal website Ready.gov and from the American Red Cross.

See the Run Hide Fight video produced by the City of Houston about surviving an active shooter situation:

Hands-Only CPR Training Video

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Hands-Only CPR is a lifesaving technique to aid someone experiencing cardiac arrest. This approach using Hands-Only can be performed anywhere by anyone with minimal levels of expertise to help someone in their time of need. If administered immediately after cardiac arrest, Hands-Only CPR can double or triple a person's chance of survival.

The American Heart Association released this training video to demonstrate how to perform and practice Hands-Only CPR.

See the training video.

Disaster Healthcare Volunteers

PIH Health participates in the Los Angeles County Disaster Healthcare Volunteers program. The program registers and trains qualified individuals to assist first responders in cases of large disasters or emergencies.

County-wide drills and practice exercises held several times each year help test our procedures. We also test how effectively we can receive and utilize disaster volunteers from other areas of the county to continue our community mission and save lives.