The Health and Human Services Department has made nearly $1.1 billion in grant funding available to public health departments, hospitals and other health care organizations to improve their ability to respond to public health emergencies.
The funding comes through two cooperative agreements established in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The grants were awarded to health departments in states and territories, as well as in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C.
“State and local communities need to be supported because they are on the front lines of response in a health emergency,” DHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said in announcing the grants.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is awarding $704.8 billion through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement to upgrade the response to all-hazards public health emergencies.
Grant recipients are expected to use the monies to integrate public health and medical systems with other first-response systems and to coordinate the planning, preparedness and response activities of state and local health organizations.
In addition, HHS’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response (ASPR) will provide $398 million through the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP), which is intended to improve the disaster readiness and surge capacity of hospitals and other health care providers.
Recipients of ASPR grants are to use their 2008 funds to improve a number of IT functions. Among these are interoperable communication systems, bed tracking systems, Emergency System for the Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP), processes for hospital evacuations, and processes for fatality management.
The top grantee was California, which received $50.2 billion from CDC/PHEP Program and $32.6 million from ASPR/HPP. Texas received a total of $72.4 million from both programs, while Florida got $55.3 million.
Government Health IT presents Liesa Jo Jenkins, executive director of CareSpark, in this recent eSeminar, where she shared her experiences and insight into building a health information exchange that enhances community health, rewards regional collaboration and drives economic progress.
