Weill Cornell Rural Bioterrorism and Epidemic Outbreak Response Model (RBERM)

Created by Wei Xiong, PhD, Eric Hollowsworth, and Nathaniel Hupert, MD, MPHFunded by U.S. DHHS (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), CDC, and NIH)



© Copyright 2007, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Planning for Rural Area Mass Prophylaxis with RBERM
 RBERM is planning tool in assisting rural areas to effectively respond to a large scale bioterrorist event by a team of  public health professionals/volunteers travel to a number of rural sites to dispense antibiotics to a widely dispersed population within 48 hours. This tool is an extention to our previous model BERM.

Our POD layout consists of four stations, as shown in the figure to the right. In this tool, a user need to input data including estimated service time at each station, their initial POD team staffing level, POD set up time, the number of sites and their target populations, travel time. When the data fields are completed, users simply click on the "POD Plan" button. The tool will estimate the number of hours needed to dispense drugs to all rural sites given the inital staffing level. A recommended staffing level is also given for the team to meet the Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) 48-hour requirement.

The purpose of this interactive model is to allow you to “think with numbers” as you go about formulating realistic response plans for rural jurisdictions where only limited personnel are available. Modeling forces critical examination of assumptions about prophylaxis strategies and about the availability of resources such as staff and potential prophylaxis clinic sites.  Estimates derived from this model should be viewed as one type of data among many that may be useful in formulating response plans. 

Rural Settings: How many sites will the POD team visit? (10 or less)Please input the following information:                      
Site ID Site Name Travel Time to Site (hours)
Estimated Population







 POD set up time (min)
















 



POD Team Inputs:Avg. Service Time in Minutes at Each POD (min):Number of Active Core Staff per POD:Greeting/EntryTriageMedical Evaluation Drug DispensingGreetersTriage StaffMedical EvaluatorsDrug Dispensing Staff     Percent of Patients Routed from Station to Station (%):From Greeting/Entry to Medical Eval From Triage to Medical Eval From Medical Eval to Health Center