The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released the CRC SimPLER, a free, publicly available, online tool to help state and local emergency and public health planners prepare for setting up community reception centers (CRCs) to monitor people following a large-scale radiation emergency. The CRC SimPLER enables planners to estimate their throughput based on currently available resources. Planners can also determine where additional resources would be most beneficial to optimize their response goals. Click here to access the CRC SimPLER.

CRC SimPLER helps radiation emergency planners understand their current capacity, potential bottlenecks, and additional resource needs when planning for population monitoring during response to a radiation emergency. It focuses on typical or anticipated activities that are needed to conduct population monitoring, which include but are not limited to providing services such as basic first aid, contamination screening, decontamination, registration, and mental health counseling. CRC SimPLER helps planners assess their current population monitoring capacity and plan for potential needs in a way that is simple to understand, quick to interpret, and can be taken or presented to decision makers if/when they need to ask for additional resources. This software can also be used as a training tool for locations that are beginning to draft their population monitoring plans and those who have not yet conducted CRC full-scale exercises. CRC SimPLER was developed using modelling software and incorporates actual timing data collected from CRC exercises across the country.

CRC SimPLER was developed by the Radiation Studies program in collaboration with the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. Both programs reside in the National Center for Environmental Health’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice.

You can direct questions about how to use CRC SimPLER to [email protected]

Webinar: Learn about CRC SimPLER and see a walk-through demonstration in this recorded webinar.