Health care system preparedness ensures that there is capacity and capability for provision of critical public health and medical services in order to reduce the potential for adverse health outcomes during an event.
Health Care Coalitions
Community and hospital preparedness ensures local providers and other health care partners plan collaboratively for the risks facing the health care community and identify available local resources.
FLHealth Response
The Florida Department of Health is responsible for coordinating public health preparedness efforts statewide, and provides a central location to access support preparedness and response activities.
General Resources
Training and Exercise Resources for HSEEP
The following organizations and agencies provide preparedness and response trainings and exercises related to the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP). Information includes tools and resources that meet the U.S. Department of Homeland Security exercise requirements.
Training Resources
- American Hospital Association
- Collaborative Disaster Planning Processes for Hospitals and Emergency Management — American College of Emergency Physicians and FEMA offer free online training on the development and maintenance of integrative disaster plans.
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (hospitals, treatment centers, and public health partners)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, Center for Domestic Preparedness Training Course Listing
- HazMat Emergency Preparedness Training and Tools for Responders
- NIMS Implementation Guidance for the National Hospital Preparedness
Exercise Resources
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – Hospital Preparedness Exercises Resources — Resources for hospitals to use for planning emergency response exercises to develop, conduct, and evaluate emergency exercises.
- HSEEP Exercise and Evaluation Program
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Exercise and Evaluation — Example of training for hospitals on the HSEEP program
Preparedness Partners
State
- Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
- Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Hospital Information
- Florida Division of Emergency Management
- Florida Health Care Association, Long Term Care Providers
- Florida Hospital Association
- Florida Hospitals and Medical Centers Listing, Agape Center
Federal
Reports and Publications
2011 Recommended Disaster Core Competencies for Hospital Personnel – Designed to assist hospitals with planning for response to all hazards, containing tools and tips for determining job specific competencies and training personnel for response
- Presentation provides an overview of the recommended competencies and how hospitals can use the information for planning and training. The PowerPoint can also be used to introduce hospital staff to core competencies and performance expectations.
Report on DOH Funded Hospital Disaster Exercises – 2002-2010
Building Community Resilience for Children and Families – A guidebook that provides information about building community resilience and helping communities improve their capacity to respond effectively to natural or man-made disasters or acts of terrorism. The Terrorism and Disaster Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, National Child Traumatic Stress Network, February 12, 2007.
Coastal Resilience Index – A community self-assessment tool “to provide community leaders with a simple an inexpensive method of predicting if their community will reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning after a disaster.” After completing the self-assessment, communities can calculate their resilience index. Cooperative multi-state project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, November 2010.
Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative – This book addresses the issue of increasing the nation’s resilience to disaster. It provides “goals, baseline conditions or performance metrics for national resilience and outlines additional information, data, gaps and/or obstacles that need to be addressed to increase the nation’s resilience to disasters.” National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, 2012. Free download is available from the National Academies Press.
Homeland Security Advisory Council Community Resilience Task Force Recommendations – Report from the task force providing findings and recommendations for building national resilience, June 2011.
Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-8: National Preparedness – Presidential directive aimed at strengthening the security and resilience of the United States through systematic preparation for the threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of the nation. President Barack Obama, March 30, 2011.
At-Risk, Behavioral Health & Community Resilience – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Emergency Web page that provides subject matter expertise, education and coordination to ensure that the functional needs of at-risk individuals and behavioral health issues are integrated in public health and medical emergency preparedness, response and recovery activities. ABC works to promote strategies for building inclusive individual and community resilience.