SUMTER COUNTY
Amateur Radio Emergency Services Association (ARES)

Points of Dispensing (also know as a POD) are locations that Florida Health can activate throughout the County and which could be used to dispensing medications or giving vaccinations to the County's entire population in the event of a health emergency. The "Gold Standard" for this task is to distribute medications to the entire County population within 48 hours.

POD's are only activated when a large portion of the population is determined to be at great risk to a contagious disease or other biological agent. POD's are operated under the authority of the County Health Officer and in coordination with the County Emergency Management.

POD Designs with special attention to supplies, clinic areas, crowd control, and staff areas.

Drive-Through
Clinical Screening
Express Screening
Self Screening

Parking for a POD may include all of the following or just a few parts

Staff Parking
Patient parking
Ambulance loading zone
Bus loading zone
Delivery doors
Pet-holding area

Identification badges will have be color coded indicating access to the POD area.

Some of the problems with a POD are maintain line control, bottlenecking, all volunteers have an assigned role, following the chain of command when needing help, and being polite

Each location will have some or all the following. There will always be a POD Manager (Incident Commander) and Command Staff (PIO, Safety/First Aid Lead, Security Lead, Customer Service Team Lead, and Inventory Team Lead). When operating a vaccination POD, the POD Manager might also add the Health Officer, and Medical Evaluatory/Lead Nurse.

The Health Department may provide supplies and medications for a POD including items such as:

Computers/Laptops

POD in a Box (Forms, POD protocols, vests, exam gloves, N95 masks power cords, )

Paper supplies, pens, tape, duct tape, badges, power cords, caution tape, flashlights

Signage

Site Maps

Traffic Cones

Unit-measured medication packages or vaccine

Medical supplies (if needed)

Set up a POD requires:

Organization of Staff
Picking the Pod Design
Health & safety
Security

A POD may be operational from a few hours to a few days.

Closing a POD

Return any unused material to inventory
Collect all paperwork
Help survey and clean the facility
Participate in De-briefing
Turn in your ID Badge & Vest
Sign Out, sign-out whenever leaving a POD

The radio operator may be attached to the Logistics Unit, Safety/Security Unit or the POD Manager. His role is to provide communications to the EOC or the Public Health office.

SUMTER COUNTY Amateur Radio Emergency Services Association (ARES)

Sumter County, Florida

SUMTER COUNTY
Amateur Radio Emergency Services Association (ARES)