HHS Provides $430M for Mass Disaster Response

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced Thursday that it had issued $430 million to help hospitals and health care facilities to prepare for an act of bioterrorism other mass disaster (see GSN, April 27).

The fiscal 2007 funds are being spread among health departments in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C metropolitan regions.

Hospitals and other sites are to use the money on interoperable communications, systems for tracking open hospital beds, advance registration of medical professionals who could volunteer during a crisis, and fatality management and hospital evacuation planning.

The funding includes $15 million for a program of grants or cooperative agreements with health care partnerships intended to boost community and hospital preparedness.  The agency expects to issue between six and 30 agreements, with funding ranging from $500,000 to $2.5 million.

“These grants are an important addition to national security because our hospitals and other health care facilities play such a critical role in responding to a terrorist attack, an infections disease outbreak, and natural disasters,” said HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt in a press release.  “States and communities can use these funds to improve emergency care during a health crisis.”

The agency over five years has distributed more than $2 billion for local medical preparedness.  California topped the 2007 list of recipients, receiving more than $34 million.  Palau, a U.S. territory, received the least at $275,000 (U.S. Health and Human Services Department release, June 28).

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