"States and local communities need to be supported because they are the front lines of response in a health emergency," Leavitt said. "These funds will continue to enhance community readiness by increasing the capabilities of health departments, hospitals and health care delivery systems to respond to any public health emergency."
The HHS funding is awarded via two separate but interrelated cooperative agreements. HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is providing a total of $704.8 million in funding to health departments in states, territories and metro areas of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C., through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement. The HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is also awarding $398 million through the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP).
The CDC-provided funds are intended to upgrade public health departments' preparedness and response to all hazards public health emergencies including terrorism, as well as pandemic influenza and other naturally occurring emergencies.
These funds will be used to meet goals that include:
- Integrating public health and public and private medical capabilities
with other first responder systems - Addressing the public health and medical needs of at-risk individuals
(such as children, or people with chronic medical disorders) in the
event of a public health emergency - Assuring coordination among state, local, and tribal planning,
preparedness, and response activities.
- Interoperable communication systems
- Systems to track available hospital beds
- Advance registration of volunteer health professionals
- Processes for hospital evacuations or sheltering-in-place
- Processes for fatality management
- Strengthening health care partnerships at the community level.
More information is available online the Hospital Preparedness Grants. Information is online about the Public Health Emergency Preparedness grants. For a list of the grants click here.