USA Prepare and AudioNet, LLC, Announce Joint Training Program for First Responders

USA Prepare, a division of MC Strategies, Inc., and AudioNet International, LLC, announced recently they have formed a strategic partnership to present the first fully interactive, low-bandwidth tabletop distance learning exercise system for emergency personnel training. The training exercises are then followed up with necessary, customized, remedial training. Some of the remedial training is classroom-based or experiential and some utilizes USA Prepares e-learning platform.

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) March 12, 2005 -- USA Prepare, a division of MC Strategies, Inc., and AudioNet International, LLC, announced recently they have formed a strategic partnership to present the first fully interactive, low-bandwidth tabletop distance learning exercise system for emergency personnel training. The training exercises are then followed up with necessary, customized, remedial training. Some of the remedial training is classroom-based or experiential and some utilizes USA Prepares e-learning platform.

In order to provide optimum service to a community, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services (EMS), and healthcare organizations, such as hospitals, must all work together to respond effectively to emergencies, including bio-terrorist events, fires, or mass casualty incidents. To achieve this cooperative response, it is necessary to conduct joint training drills and educational events that include all of these entities. Conducting a community-wide emergency response drill presents many challenges due to geographic distances, conflicting time commitments, and limited staff availability.

USA Prepare and AudioNets new joint training program overcomes all of these challenges.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) addresses the need for community integration when planning for emergency management activities in its Management of the Environment of Care" (EC) chapter, standard EC.4.10. Also, standard EC.4.20 requires organizations to conduct regular drills to evaluate the effectiveness of their planning efforts for emergency management and to test their response capabilities. One of the elements of performance for standard EC.4.20 requires organizations to participate in at least one community-wide practice drill a year relevant to the priority emergencies identified in the organizations hazard vulnerability analysis.

The new programs drills are fully JCAHO-compliant. AudioNet technology, using low bandwidth Internet connection, facilitates extended reach into any hospital or public health center with dial-up connection capability. The audio is delivered using a telephone connection to a bank of digital audio servers. The visuals are delivered via an Internet connection to AudioNet secure web servers. AudioNet technology therefore allows any number of attendees in an Internet-connected auditorium to participate as easily as a single person at their workstation.

Following the Web-based tabletop exercise, a panel of national emergency preparedness experts and the local emergency response leadership debrief the exercise to determine remedial learning objectives. Appropriate training is then created and assigned to learners using the USA Prepare branded Knowledge Deployment System® (KDS). USA Prepare offers courses covering such topics as Incident Command System/NIMS, Public Affairs Communication, and Hospital Staffs Use of Protective Equipment.

This new training approach can be customized to meet the individual disaster potentials of any state. Local communications channels are used to conduct the drills, and monkey wrenches" or unplanned events can be inserted into the simulated emergency to create more realistic effects. The programs drills also exercise various state agencies, as well as the local Incident Command Center for an impacted hospital.

About USA Prepare
USA Prepare is a division of MC Strategies, a longtime, preeminent provider of Web-based education to the healthcare industry. With over 1,300 healthcare facilities as clients, MC Strategies has a proven track record of quality service unequaled in the industry. USA Prepare builds on this history of e-learning excellence by creating a unique approach to disaster preparedness training.

About AudioNet International
AudioNet International is a company that has successfully blended the clarity and ease of telephone communication with the visual impact of specially designed Web-based presentations on the Internet to bring your exercises to groups of 10 or 1,000. Emergency response organizations do not need broadband connection or special computer software to participate in an AudioNet Desktop drill.

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