Between the war on Iraq, the search for terrorists in Afghanistan, the aftermath of Sept. 11 and color-coded homeland security alerts, Americans have been on edge for some time.

To help ease that tension Mercer County's hospitals -- Sharon Regional Health System, UPMC Horizon and United Community Hospital of Grove City -- have teamed up to help educate families on emergency preparedness.

Sharon Regional's Glenn Miller, UPMC Horizon's Ronald Thompson and UCH's Mark Arblaster were at Penn State University-Shenango Campus Tuesday to give the local media a preview of their presentation.

A slide show, a series of American Red Cross brochures and a demonstration of the Powered Air Purifying Respirator System and suit highlighted the presentation in the Forum on the downtown Sharon campus.

"It certainly is notable that we're all formally now coming out and doing a joint effort like this, specifically targeted to the community in a completely non-competitive manner," said Miller, Director of Sharon Regional's Winner EMS Educational Institute. "I think it just goes to show that we all do get along and we all do have the same goals and same desires to serve the community as best we can."

The planning stages for this program began earlier this year, although the hospitals have been meeting since 1997 to plan annual disaster drills, Thompson said.

"Unofficially we've been working together since that period of time," said Thompson, Director of UPMC Horizon Support Services. "Knowing everybody's fear of bioterrorism and everything that's going on in the world we wanted to get together as a single unit and put this presentation on."

The three met with their hospitals ' public relations staffs and, after incorporating information already available from the Red Cross, began scheduling the meetings.

The program's goals for the public are simple, according to Arblaster, UCH's Director of Plant Operations and Safety Officer.

"The goal is to give them information; tell them what to expect in the event of a disaster, whether it be a natural disaster or a manmade disaster; to give them guidance on what to do, how to prepare and what to expect if they come to a hospital during a disaster time; and to put their minds at ease because these are scary times," Arblaster said.

"And also what they can do at home because there's been a lot of national media coverage about home preparedness," Miller added.

That coverage included the infamous duct tape and plastic sheeting instructions of Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge that had Americans running to hardware stores a couple of months ago.

"There's very common sense things that people should be doing at home to prepare for any disaster," Miller said. "This project started out of a desire at the level of the administrations of the hospitals to have a joint terrorism preparedness program. But the reality is that preparing for terrorism or preparing for the nuclear, biological, chemical bad stuff is really the same from the home level as preparing for a tornado or a flood or a hurricane, whatever the case may be. It's all the same."

No matter what the disaster is people, Miller said, will always need food, water, first aid supplies and a way to hear what's going on in the outside world, which might include a weather radio or battery-powered radio. These ideas are already included in Red Cross materials, so the group teamed up the Red Cross to get pamphlets at no charge.

Miller, Thompson and Arblaster were well aware heading into the project that some in the community might question it's validity or necessity.

Based on the experiences of Sept. 11, most experts believe the primary targets of any terrorist would be major cities like New York, Washington and Chicago. There is, however, another school of thought that supports the theory that "small-town America" could also be targeted.

"The reality of it is there may be a slim chance of a bioterrorism incident occurring in Mercer County," Miller said. "There may be a slim chance of us having a direct effect from a chemical weapons release, but we know just from this past November that tornadoes can strike at any time. We know from past history in the valley that we can have flooding. There are other types of natural disasters -- snowstorms that knock out power -- that occur all the time. And the preparedness for one is amazingly similar to the preparedness for another."

In addition to this collaborative effort, the county's hospital systems also work together as members of the Mass Casualty Committee and Local Emergency Planning Committee locally, as well as being a part of the Pennsylvania Region 13 Weapons of Mass Destruction Working Group. That region encompasses 13 Southwest Pennsylvania counties and their 64 hospitals, which have also signed a memorandum of understanding to share resources in the event of an emergency.

Upcoming presentations locally are scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in United Community Hospital and 7 p.m. April 22 in the large group instruction room in Grove City High School. More presentations are also expected to be scheduled in the near future, including one in Greenville.

Service organizations and other groups are also welcome to contact the trio at their respective hospitals to schedule additional presentations. Numbers are: Sharon Regional, (724) 983-5518; UCH, (724) 450-7191; and UPMC Horizon, (724) 589-6113.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Jeff Greenburg at:
jgreenburg@sharonherald.com