Public health emergency preparedness (phep) cooperative agreement - the north dakota department of health and human services (nddhhs) has developed a statewide emergency response system that…

Public health emergency preparedness (phep) cooperative agreement - the north dakota department of health and human services (nddhhs) has developed a statewide emergency response system that integrates emergency preparedness with many other state agencies including the ND department of emergency services, ND highway patrol, ND department of transportation, ND hospital preparedness program (HPP), ND long term care association, u. S. Department of agriculture, and the nddhhs medical services section. Partners and stakeholders will be involved with several exercises and training opportunities that are planned throughout the state with phep program staff organizing the events. A capstone full-scale exercise involving stakeholders and partner responders is planned for year four of this performance period. Nddhhs will be incorporating a statewide health and medical assessment to identify communities experiencing differences in health status due to structural barriers. The local public health statewide response team (SRT) that is supported with phep funding is comprised of response experts in each of the eight public health regions in north dakota. These professional team members have become recognized for their expertise to integrate preparedness efforts across the state and to broaden advisory disciplines to leverage resources to the maximum extent possible. This team assists to build workforce capacity to meet jurisdictional surge management needs and support staff recruitment, retention, resilience, and mental health. The SRT participate with emergency management assistance compact (emac) missions and become non-permanent state employees to deploy with other state personnel to provide mutual aid. The north dakota state medical cache is one of the most important elements of our state's health and medical response system. The medical cache is considered a public/private asset and is available to all health and medical agencies to assist with needed supplies and equipment until they are able to return to a self-supporting status. State medical cache assets and equipment are used to participate in and assist with the exercises held throughout the state. Supplies from the cache have been strategically placed in the seven largest communities within the state to assist with the immediate needs of that community in an emergency. Advanced capacity and capability of the nddhhs public health laboratories will assist in characterizing emerging public health threats through exercising, testing and surveillance. A new laboratory facility has been approved in north dakota and will be completed during this performance period. An increase and improvement in overall laboratory operational space will increase efficiencies in the laboratory response capabilities. Concentration on the phep capabilities and the public health response readiness framework throughout the project period will enhance response readiness, prioritize a risk-based approach to all-hazards planning, strengthen state, local tribal and territorial public health preparedness, and response capability through a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluation and taking corrective action. Inclusion of modernized data collection and systems will improve situational awareness and information sharing with healthcare systems and other partners. Our goals are to achieve excellence in response by establishing operational readiness in all capabilities and sustain substantial, measurable progress across all capabilities. These outcomes will prevent or reduce morbidity and mortality and result in the earliest possible recovery to pre-incident levels.