Overview:
The Ohio Department of Health is believed to be the first state agency to implement an automated warehouse management system to avert widespread disorder through the orderly distribution of critical medication and medical equipment in emergency conditions. The system might also come in handy for non-terror events, such as an influenza pandemic or weather-related disasters.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government charged states with putting plans in place for responding to terror events in their own regions. Part of that mandate required regional organizations to be able to distribute vaccines and medication from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Strategic National Stockpile.

Ohio officials wanted a system that could be quickly deployable from just about anywhere, without requiring an in-place infrastructure. What they got was a computerized warehouse management scheme that can be fully operational in less than 10 minutes. The system, called IRMS (Information Resource Management System), from Downers Grove, Ill.-based Integrated Warehousing Solutions, is being deployed by Ohio at a 40,000-square-foot central distribution facility, as well as at seven smaller regional warehouses. During an emergency, the mobile system could be used by potentially hundreds of stationary and portable satellite dispensing sites.

IRMS was designed to be a completely self-contained, mobile warehouse management operation that controls the distribution of vaccines and other critical medicines, while at the same time automating record keeping to insure regulatory compliance, including lot number and expiration date tracking, what has been distributed, and where it has been sent. The system can be run completely on laptop computers.

Another feature that makes IRMS unique is that it provides dual functionality, that is, the new system is not restricted to emergency use only. While IRMS, which is no small investment, is waiting to provide warehouse management in the event of a bioterror emergency, ODH is also adapting it to manage everyday state public health warehouse operations.