Publications

Prior to completing this Preparedness Report, the Center submitted to HHS its Evaluation Report (delivered March 2009). A key finding of the Evaluation Report was that, while much progress has been made in healthcare preparedness for common medical disasters, the U.S. healthcare system is ill-prepared for catastrophic health events (CHE), and there is as yet no clear strategy that will enable an effective response to such an event. For this report, the definition of "catastrophic health event" is that put forth in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21): an event that could result in tens or hundreds of thousands of sick or injured individuals who would require access to healthcare resources.

This Preparedness Report proposes the following key elements of a national strategy for healthcare preparedness and response:

• Definition and vision of a U.S. healthcare system prepared to handle the response to a spectrum of mass casualty events that vary in size and severity from common medical disasters (eg, a bus crash or tornado), to catastrophic health events (eg, a nuclear detonation) that would seriously injure or sicken tens of thousands of people or more.

• Recommendations and actions that will lead to a healthcare system capable of responding to the full spectrum of mass casualty events, including CHEs.

Methodology

The methodology used for this Preparedness Report included a thorough review of the published U.S. and international literature on healthcare disaster preparedness, healthcare response to disasters, and complex systems theory literature; a review of HPP program guidance from 2008 and 2009; and other federal guidance, plans, and documents with particular emphasis on CHEs. Three CHE scenarios based on federal planning assumptions also were considered in the development of this report.

A preliminary presentation of the analysis and recommendations of this report was made at the second Issue Analysis Meeting on February 24, 2009. Input and peer review from that meeting's participants - state and local disaster coordinators and key disaster healthcare leaders in government and academia - have also been incorporated into this document. See Appendix D: Second Issue Analysis Group Meeting Participants (page 54).

Major Challenges to Catastrophic Health Event Response

The Center's analysis of the current system for a national response to CHEs revealed several major challenges:

• Many hospitals and other healthcare organizations do not yet participate in fully functional healthcare coalitions, which are necessary to CHE response.

• Most existing coalitions do not yet have the ability to share information, resources, and decision making with neighboring coalitions during a CHE.

• There are inadequate systems to perform the necessary triage, immediate treatment, and transport of patients outside of the immediate area stricken by a CHE.

• Existing plans and resources for patient transport are grossly inadequate for moving the expected numbers of patients.

• There is not enough guidance on the crisis standards of care that will be necessary throughout all stages of a CHE.

• There is no plan that sufficiently outlines healthcare roles, responsibilities, and actions during the response to a CHE.

Definition and Vision of a Healthcare System Prepared for Events of All Sizes

Definition: A well-prepared healthcare system is able to effectively manage the healthcare consequences of common medical disasters and is able to respond quickly and with agility to harness all useful public and private national resources to cope with a CHE.

Vision: During a disaster, a well-prepared healthcare system will be able to function under a variety of adverse circumstances that may include: an immediate surge of patients in need of acute care, a prolonged surge of patients, a contaminated or contagious environment, loss of infrastructure that necessitates triage and treatment outside of healthcare institutions, poor situational awareness, and disruption of incident management chains of command.

Recommendations

Described below are recommendations and specific actions that the federal government can take to achieve progress toward preparing the U.S. healthcare system for responding effectively to mass casualty events of all sizes (see Table 1). These recommendations are derived from the results of research and evaluation conducted by the Center in developing the Descriptive Framework, the Evaluation Report, the HFPP and ECP Partnership Evaluation; from conducting Issue Analysis Meetings; and from the Center's independent analysis.

Conclusions

While the recommendations made in this report are feasible, many of them will take time to accomplish. Concrete progress toward the goal of CHE preparedness can be achieved through the series of actions outlined in this report, but will require sustained effort at the federal, state, and community levels for a number of years, and funding sufficient to make it possible.

(See also: Hospitals Rising to the Challenge: The First Five Years of the U.S. Hospital Preparedness Program and Priorities Going Forward, March 2009)

Project Team: Center for Biosecurity of UPMC

Eric Toner, MD, Principal Investigator
Senior Associate

Richard E. Waldhorn, MD, Co-principal Investigator
Distinguished Scholar

Crystal Franco, MPH, Project Manager
Senior Analyst

Ann Norwood, MD, COL, USA, MC (Ret.)
Senior Associate

Brooke Courtney, JD, MPH
Associate

Kunal Rambhia
Analyst

Matthew Watson
Analyst

Thomas V. Inglesby, MD
Director and Chief Executive Officer