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Health Care System Preparedness
Through
funding from the United
States Department of Health and Human Services
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and
Response, each state works to improve preparedness of hospitals and supporting
systems for a large scale public health event.
Planning in this arena is "all hazard". It
includes work related to natural disasters
(flood, winter storms, pandemics, other
infectious disease outbreaks, etc.), as well as
manmade events, whether intentional or
unintentional (chemical spills, radiological
events, explosive events, bioterrorism, etc.).
The
Center for Threat Preparedness and West Virginia Department of Health and
Human Resources (DHHR), in cooperation with the West Virginia Hospital
Association (WVHA), supports seven regional planning groups of hospitals,
primary care centers, local health departments, emergency services agencies and
others who have developed and continue to work on regional response plans to
such events.
Critical
issues for hospitals and the healthcare system include preparing for a surge of
hundreds of additional patients,
through such approaches as expanding internal
facility capacity, establishing alternate patient care sites,
and systems, supplementing staff though the use
of licensed and credentialed volunteers,
building caches of supplies, etc.
Coordination of efforts is supported through
sharing of data on resources as well as regional
planning.
Collaborative
efforts and cooperation among healthcare, public health and emergency service
personnel are serving to make West Virginia safer to deal with an unexpected
large scale event.
Here are some useful links:
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