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August 01, 2024 (Cleveland, OH)

The Center Selected as Regional Hospital Coordinator for the Next Five Years



The Center for Health Affairs has been selected by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response (ASPR) to continue serving as the Regional Hospital Coordinator (RHC) for Northeast Ohio for the next five years and was awarded $794,118 in year one federal funding. These funds will support ongoing healthcare emergency preparedness in the region for the July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025, grant year.

Administered by ASPR, an office within the U.S. Department of Human Services, the Hospital Preparedness Program provides funding to support the work of hospitals and other agencies to prepare for natural or man-made emergencies. The Northeast Ohio ASPR region encompasses 25 hospitals including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth, Southwest General and Mercy Health. Other key stakeholders include emergency management agencies (EMA), police, fire and emergency medical services (EMS), public health, and other non-government organizations. Comprising the Northeast Ohio Healthcare Coalition (HCC), these entities work together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from large-scale emergencies to reduce the impacts of these events.

The application to be selected as RHC was submitted by The Center in May 2024 along with 17 letters of support from county health departments, the City of Cleveland Department of Public Health, EMAs, EMS, and hospitals. The Center has been receiving funding through ASPR since 2003 and will continue to hold a key role in hospital emergency preparedness in the region.

This year’s funding will support functional exercises, additions to the regional response plan, and the purchase of hospital preparedness equipment and supplies. A new deliverable for 2024-2025 is the implementation of a readiness assessment, designed to detail the HCC’s capacity and capability to carry out the activities of the ASPR Hospital Preparedness Cooperative Agreement, conduct healthcare preparedness and response operations, and identify and address healthcare readiness gaps. The healthcare readiness assessment will inform the HCC Readiness Plan as well as the HCC Response Plan.

ASPR funding also supports to the HCC annual conference, hosted by The Center for Health Affairs. This conference is free to attendees and consists of trainings and panel discussions centered around the topic of emergency preparedness. The most recent grant also supported the 2023 National Disaster Medical System exercise that occurred at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport, which simulated a federally declared disaster.

“The Center is honored to continue serving Region II through the Hospital Preparedness Program in partnership with our coalition stakeholders. This funding is the only source of federal funding for hospital preparedness and remains key for our hospital systems to work together to prepare our communities for crisis situations,” said Christina Fozio, the program manager of Emergency Preparedness for The Center for Health Affairs. “This award will allow The Center to continue this important work for another five years.”

Learn more about The Center’s Emergency Preparedness Program here.