Specific Areas of Interest

• Catastrophic Planning Resources
• Discharge Planning Resources
• Hospital Surge Resources
• Mass Casualty Resources
• Medical Surge Resources
• Mutual Aid, Coalitions, and other Partnerships
• Pediatric Preparedness Resources

Catastrophic Planning Resources

The information is this section focuses on providing guidance and tools to hospitals to respond to any natural or man-made incident, including terrorism that results in a number of ill or injured persons sufficient to overwhelm the capabilities of immediate local and regional emergency response and health care systems.

CDC Emergency Water Supply Planning Guide - This document provides valuable information and guidance for emergency plans related to critical water usage in a health care facility that could be impacted by a water outage.

Center for Biosecurity preparedness report - January 2010. The Next Challenge in Healthcare Preparedness: Catastrophic Health Events

Center for Biosecurity - hospital preparedness evaluation report 2009

Discharge Planning Resources

The links in this section provide plans, procedures, and guidance to assist hospital personnel in planning for the discharge of patients to help them continue improving outside of a clinical setting.

AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) Hospital Evacuation Decision Guide - Provides hospital evacuation teams with guidance on the many factors to consider in making the decision to order an evacuation. (Steps in planning evacuations, tools.

AHRQ (Agency for Hospital Research and Quality) Review of Boston Medical Center re-engineered discharge project.

Florida Department of Health Discharge Planning

Florida Department of Health Hospital Emergency Evacuation Toolkit (pdf 1.38mb/85 pages) (Reviewed May 2011) - This toolkit is intended to support Florida's acute care hospitals' all-hazard preparedness activities. The document provides a guide for the development of an effective evacuation plan. It builds upon lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina as well as the evacuations from Florida Hospitals over the past decade.

New York City Rapid Patient Discharge Tool

Hospital Surge Resources

The purpose of this section is to provide guidance to assist hospitals to increase their medical surge capacity and capability. By increasing surge capacity and capability, hospitals can be better prepared to respond to a catastrophic event and triage and treat an increased number of victims. (See Medical Surge for additional information)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) - Reopening Shuttered Hospitals to Expand Surge Capacity - Report, Toolkit, and Facility Checklist.

New York City Surge Capacity toolkit

Santa Clara County Hospital Surge Capacity Tool Kit

Mass Casualty Resources

The following links provide hospitals with resources that include elements of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. They take into consideration such factors as the appropriateness and adequacy of physical facilities, organizational structures, human resources, and communication systems.

Alaska's Draft Mass Casualty Plan (Sample)

Association For Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc., Center for the Study of Bioterrorism & Emerging Infections - Mass Casualty Checklist

(CDC) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Mass Casualty Event and Response

Medical Surge Resources

The following links provide planning documents, checklists, and general guidance for hospitals when they need to prepare for major emergencies or disasters involving human casualties. Such events will severely challenge the ability of healthcare systems to adequately care for large numbers of patients (surge capacity) and/or victims with unusual or highly specialized medical needs (surge capability). (See Hospital Surge for additional information)

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Medical Surge Target Capability

GAO Report on emergency preparedness for medical surge

HSEEP Medical Surge Exercise Evaluation Guide

US Department of Health and Human Services and ASPR Medical Surge Capacity Handbook

Mutual Aid, Coalitions, and other Partnerships

Information is this section includes sample mutual aid and other agreements for shared resources, guidance, and other tools to assist hospitals develop and implement partnerships and collaborations for community medical surge capacity and capability.

California Hospital Association - Model Hospital Mutual Aid MOU - Includes link to American Hospital Association MOU model and others.

CDC sample mutual aid agreement

CDC Public Health Law Program Mutual Aid Agreements

Facilitating Hospital Emergency Preparedness Introduction of a Model Memorandum of Understanding

Hospital Disaster Mutual Aid Overview (pdf 119.42kb/9 pages) - Information and additional resources demonstrate the potential offered by mutual aid agreements and provide examples that can be adapted to improve your hospital's mutual aid agreements.

Polk County Hospitals Memorandum of Understanding for Mutual Aid

Public Health Law Association Resources and Samples

Public Health Seattle and King County and the King County Healthcare Coalition - Regional Medical and Evacuation and Patient Tracking Mutual Aid Plan

Michigan Department of Community Health Mutual Aid Issue Brief

State of Wyoming Sample Mutual Aid Agreement Template

Pediatric Preparedness Resources

Hospital Disaster Plans need to incorporate the unique and specific vulnerabilities of children during a public health or mass casualty incident. Planning for the pediatric population needs to be integrated into all aspects and stages of disaster planning. Links in this section provide information and resources to assist hospitals in improving pediatric emergency care and meeting the needs of this population during a disaster.

AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) Pediatric Hospital Surge Capacity in Public Health Emergencies

AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) Pediatric Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness - A Resource for Pediatricians, prepared by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

American Academy of Pediatrics Disaster Preparedness - Provides a variety of reports and resources including a policy statement on "Care of Children in the Emergency Department."

CDC Preparedness Resources for Pediatric Offices and Hospitals - In addition to resources on this webpage, put the words "Pediatric Preparedness" in the search box and find additional articles, podcasts and information.

Emergency Medical Services for Children National Resource Center Publications and Resources - A comprehensive searchable data base of publications, toolboxes and other resources. Insert "Disaster" in the search box for a variety of information.

Florida Department of Health Emergency Medical Services for Children in Florida - Contains links to guidance, information, products, and educational tools.

National Center for Disaster Preparedness Pediatric Preparedness for Disasters and Terrorism - Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.

National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Established to improve access to care, treatment, and services for traumatized children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events. Natural disasters and terrorism are highlighted trauma types for information and resources.

New York City Pediatric Preparedness - The New York City Pediatric Preparedness Focus Area webpage contains numerous resources including a "Hospital Guidelines for Pediatrics Preparedness" publication and a pediatric table top exercise toolkit.