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The Florida Department of Health works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts.

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Special Interest Resources

Contact: Florida Health

This webpage contains information to assist facility personnel in planning for patient discharge.

Catastrophic Planning 

The information is this section focuses on providing guidance and tools to hospitals to respond to any natural or man-made incident, including terrorism that results in a number of ill or injured persons sufficient to overwhelm the capabilities of immediate local and regional emergency response and health care systems.

  • CDC Emergency Water Supply Planning Guide  This 2019 revised guide can provide a road map for health care facilities to prepare for, respond, and recover from a total or partial water supply interruption by providing the guidance to assess water usage, response capabilities, and water supply alternatives.

Discharge Planning 

The links in this section provide plans, procedures, and guidance to assist hospital personnel in planning for the discharge of patients to help them continue improving outside of a clinical setting.  

Hospital Surge 

The purpose of this section is to provide guidance to assist hospitals to increase their medical surge capacity and capability. By increasing surge capacity and capability, hospitals can be better prepared to respond to a catastrophic event and triage and treat an increased number of victims. (See Medical Surge for additional information below) 

Mass Casualty 

The following links provide hospitals with resources that include elements of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. They take into consideration such factors as the appropriateness and adequacy of physical facilities, organizational structures, human resources, and communication systems.      

Medical Surge Resources 

The following links provide planning documents, checklists, and general guidance for hospitals when they need to prepare for major emergencies or disasters involving human casualties. Such events will severely challenge the ability of healthcare systems to adequately care for large numbers of patients (surge capacity) and/or victims with unusual or highly specialized medical needs (surge capability). (See Hospital Surge for additional information)    

Mutual Aid, Coalitions, and Other Partnerships 

Information is this section includes sample mutual aid and other agreements for shared resources, guidance, and other tools to assist hospitals develop and implement partnerships and collaborations for community medical surge capacity and capability.

Pediatric Preparedness Resources 

Hospital Disaster Plans need to incorporate the unique and specific vulnerabilities of children during a public health or mass casualty incident. Planning for the pediatric population needs to be integrated into all aspects and stages of disaster planning. Links in this section provide information and resources to assist hospitals in improving pediatric emergency care and meeting the needs of this population during a disaster. 

*Note: This page contains materials in the Portable Document Format (PDF).  The free Adobe Reader may be required to view these files.