Are We Ready? Washington Hospital Center Sets Precedents in Preparedness for 9/11-Sty...( WASHINGTON Oct. 29 -- It's been ...),Health

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It's been six years since the nation's capital was stunned by terrorist attacks. But if the D.C. region were attacked again, are we any better prepared now than we were then? The medical leadership of the prestigious Washington Hospital Center will answer the question, Tuesday evening, October 30th at the Willard InterContinental Hotel with "ARE WE READY?" -- as they present the Washington Hospital Center's cutting edge advances in violent and bioterrorist attack response. The Washington Hospital Center is less than two miles from the U.S. Capitol and handled many of the victims of the 9/11 Pentagon blast, including the majority of burn victims.

"As the nation's capital, ours is a unique and uniquely vulnerable community," says Maisie Maguire, of the Women's Auxiliary to the Washington Hospital Center. "Since 9/11 the Washington Hospital Center has stepped up and taken the lead in developing exciting new catastrophic emergency response measures -- and we want people to know about them."

Highlights of the program, which will be moderated a by Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., a commissioner for the World Health Organization, Senior Fellow at Project Hope, and a leading authority on health policy, include:

-- Updates on ER One, the Hospital Center's news-making and federal

award-winning prototype for terrorist event response, presented by the

Director of the ER One Institute, Mark Smith, MD, FACEP, chairman of

the hospital center's Dept. of Emergency Medicine.

-- Innovative protocols for dealing with terrorist-event burns and trauma,

presented by Marion H. Jordan, MD, FACS, director of the hospital

center's Burn Center and its Burns/Trauma Section of General Surgery,

and recipient of "The Outstanding Civilian Service Medal" from the

Dept. of the Army for service following the 9/11 attack.

-- Preparations for a bioterrorist event suc
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