News Releases

Funding for Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program Announced

The Center for Health Affairs has been awarded $876,521 in hospital emergency preparedness funds through the Ohio Department of Health and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services responsible for responding to and preparing for public health emergencies for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. 

As was anticipated, this year’s funding amount is 34 percent less than funding in the previous year. Over the past 10 years, federal hospital emergency preparedness grant funding has decreased by more than 50 percent. A decline is expected to continue for the next two grant periods. 

“Despite the decrease in hospital emergency preparedness funding, the ASPR grant will allow us to provide each of our member hospitals between $12,500 and $25,000 to help prepare their facilities for emergencies such as chemical spills, power outages, mass casualties, information system failures and terrorist events,” said Beth Gatlin, RN, MA-HSM, ASPR project director, The Center for Health Affairs. “Northeast Ohio is unique in that the majority of federal emergency preparedness funds received through ASPR flow directly to our member hospitals, as opposed to being retained by the state department of health.” 

Communication, functional needs issues, exercises and training will remain a priority throughout the funding year, which runs from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. As part of the individualized consulting provided to members, The Center will work with each member hospital to prioritize the use of emergency preparedness funds in order to improve each hospital’s emergency preparedness and ultimately to ensure the safety of hospital patients, employees and the facility. Again this year, The Center’s emergency preparedness team and its member hospitals will be working with county emergency management agencies and public health departments to identify and develop integrated healthcare coalitions, which will ensure that community healthcare networks will be maintained or recover quickly in the event of a devastating event. 

If you have comments, questions or concerns about the region’s hospital emergency preparedness funds, please contact Beth Gatlin via email or at 216.255.3665, or Andrea Bishop, BSN, emergency preparedness project manager, The Center for Health Affairs, via email or at 216.255.3662.