Linking public health agencies and hospitals for improved emergency preparedness: North Carolina's public health epidemiologist program (original) (raw)
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This product is part of the RAND Corporation technical report series. Reports may include research findings on a specific topic that is limited in scope; present discussions of the methodology employed in research; provide literature reviews, survey instruments, modeling exercises, guidelines for practitioners and research professionals, and supporting documentation; or deliver preliminary findings. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity.
A state-based analysis of public health preparedness programs in the United States
Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)
Given the national effort to respond to the challenge of terrorism post-9/11, this study examined the organizational structure of state public health preparedness programs across the country, their administration, and the personnel and resources supported through federal cooperative agreements and state funds. In Fall 2004, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials surveyed state public health preparedness directors of all 50 states and territories of the United States regarding the organizational structure, administration, personnel, and resources of the state public health preparedness programs. Individuals representing 45 states and the District of Columbia responded to the web-based questionnaire for a response rate of 88.2%, States tended to subdivide their organizations into regions for preparedness purposes. More than half the established preparedness regions (53.8%) were created post-9/11. Preparedness program directors frequently reported directly to either ...
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Emergency Department Initiatives to Improve the Public Health*
Academic Emergency Medicine, 1998
ABSTRACT Each year, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the American Board of Emergency Medicine co-sponsor an educational session at the Association of American Medical Colleges Annual Meeting. The 1997 session was entitled “Emergency Department Initiatives to Improve the Public Health,” and included presentations by 4 invited speakers: Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, Director of Emergency Medicine at Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University Medical Center; Dr. Dennis Andrulis, Director of the Office of Urban Populations at the New York Academy of Medicine; Dr. Robert D'Alessandri, Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine at West Virginia University; and Dr. Arthur Kellermann, Acting Chief of Emergency Medicine at Emory University. Each speaker focused on a particular aspect of emergency medicine and the health of the public. The following article summarizes some of the session's ideas and themes.
Journal of Community Health, 2010
Due to their access to medically underserved and vulnerable populations, community health centers (CHCs) can play an essential role in emergency response. CHCs often fill this role in partnership with other local health resources, such as local health departments (LHD). Little research has been done to understand the success of these partnerships as it relates to emergency planning and emergency response. This study compares CHC and LHD personnel regarding past, present, and future collaborative preparedness and response activities. Surveys were distributed electronically to 1,265 clinical and clerical staff at LHDs and CHCs in 23 states who met the study criteria. Of the 522 respondents, 287 (55%) reported having engaged in collaborative preparedness activities in general, with CHCs more likely to report partnering than LHDs. LHDs were more likely than CHCs to report taking part in specific preparedness activities, such as planning activities (91, 79%), (v 2 (1, N = 280) = 7.395, P \ 0.05), mass dispensing drill/exercises (65, 42%), (v 2 (1, N = 279) = 14.019, P \ 0.001), and communication drill/exercises (69, 47%), (v 2 (1, N = 280) = 13.059, P \ 0.001). This study suggests that collaborations between CHCs and LHDs in general are occurring, but these general collaboration are not being translated into participation in functional drills or exercises. Additional efforts to ensure a more comprehensive partnership between CHCs and LHDs in emergency preparedness are warranted.
Federal Practitioner, 2021
Background: Over the past decade, the number of natural disasters, health care emergencies, and epidemics has increased significantly. These unpredictable and sometimes devastating events tax already stretched health care systems. The goal of this process paper is to share the experience of a pharmacy school in the development and implementation of a sustainable emergency preparedness and response support network (EPRSN) using an established student government infrastructure to support information sharing among community pharmacies, state emergency response teams, and community members. Observations: There are more than 140 accredited pharmacy schools/colleges across the United States, employing more than 6,500 pharmacy faculty members and teaching more than 63,000 student pharmacists. The majority of schools/colleges provide free and volunteer-based health care services and collaborate with local, regional, and national entities, such as state boards of pharmacy and national and state professional pharmacy organizations. Student pharmacists are positioned across the country with reach to rural and underserved communities and have student organizational structures in place to manage student volunteers and support health care service opportunities. To address gaps in emergency and preparedness response, pharmacy students assessed and operationalized steps to develop the EPRSN. Pharmacies were identified and contacted by student pharmacists. Student leaders created student organization flowcharts and call charts with up-to-date pharmacist contact information. Organizational structure for collecting, capturing, updating, and sharing pharmacy data with state emergency response teams was developed and trialed. Conclusions: Student pharmacists represent a sustainable resource, uniquely positioned to identify community needs, support emergency efforts, coordinate with local pharmacies, and work with pharmacists and others to ensure that patients receive the care they need during pandemics and other emergencies.
Painter, DVM, MPH r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r Objectives: We assessed local health departments' (LHDs') ability to provide data on nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for the mitigation of 2009 H1N1 influenza during the pandemic response. Design: Local health departments voluntarily participated weekly in a National Association of County and City Health Officials Web-based survey designed to provide situational awareness to federal partners about NPI recommendations and implementation during the response and to provide insight into the epidemiologic context in which recommendations were made. Setting: Local health departments during the fall 2009 H1N1 pandemic response. Participants: Local health departments that voluntarily participated in the National Association of County and City Health Officials Sentinel Surveillance Network. Main Outcome Measures: Local health departments were asked to report data on recommendations for and the implementation of NPIs from 7 community sectors. Data were also collected on influenza outbreaks; closures, whether recommended by the local health department or not; absenteeism of students in grades K-12; the type(s) of influenza viruses circulating in the jurisdiction; and the health care system capacity. Results: One hundred thirty-nine LHDs participated. Most LHDs issued NPI recommendations to their community over the 10-week survey period with 70% to 97% of LHDs recommending hand hygiene and cough etiquette and 51% to 78% voluntary isolation of ill patients. However, 21% to 48% of LHDs lacked information of closure, absenteeism, or outbreaks in schools, and 28% to 50% lacked information on outpatient clinic capacity. Conclusions: Many LHDs were unable to monitor implementation of NPI (recommended by LHD or not) within their community during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. This gap makes it difficult to adjust recommendations or messaging during a public health
PLoS ONE, 2013
As part of their core mission, public health agencies attend to a wide range of disease and health threats, including those that require routine, acute, and emergency responses. While each incident is unique, the number and type of response activities are finite; therefore, through comparative analysis, we can learn about commonalities in the response patterns that could improve predictions and expectations regarding the resources and capabilities required to respond to future acute events. In this study, we interviewed representatives from more than 120 local health departments regarding their recent experiences with real-world acute public health incidents, such as infectious disease outbreaks, severe weather events, chemical spills, and bioterrorism threats. We collected highly structured data on key aspects of the incident and the public health response, particularly focusing on the public health activities initiated and community partners engaged in the response efforts. As a result, we are able to make comparisons across event types, create response profiles, and identify functional and structural response patterns that have import for future public health preparedness and response. Our study contributes to clarifying the complexity of public health response systems and our analysis reveals the ways in which these systems are adaptive to the character of the threat, resulting in differential activation of functions and partners based on the type of incident. Continued and rigorous examination of the experiences of health departments throughout the nation will refine our very understanding of what the public health response system is, will enable the identification of organizational and event inputs to performance, and will allow for the construction of rich, relevant, and practical models of response operations that can be employed to strengthen public health systems.
Public Health Systems Research in Emergency Preparedness
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2009
Background: Despite the acknowledged promise of developing a public health systems research (PHSR) agenda for emergency preparedness, there has been no systematic review of the literature in this area. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review in order to identify and characterize the PHSR literature produced in the U.S. in the past 11 years in the field of public health emergency preparedness. Evidence acquisition: Articles were searched in MEDLINE and EMBASE, as well as in the gray literature. Two independent reviewers classified the articles according to study design and IOM public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) research goal areas.