220053 Moving toward a measurement model for public health preparedness

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

Diane Caves, MPA , Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Jean C. O'Connor, JD, DrPH , Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Theresa Kanter , Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Stephanie Dopson, MSW, MPH , Influenza Coordination Unit, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA
Sharefa Aria, MPH , Health Policy and Management, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Peter Rzeszotarski , Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
More than 40 billion dollars have been spent on public health preparedness since 2001. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receives approximately 1.5 billion dollars in annual appropriations for preparedness and emergency response. CDC awards almost half of those funds to state and local governments through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement. As a result of the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act, which called for the development of a National Health Security Strategy, and the current budget climate, there is a renewed focus on assessing the impact of the investment in public health preparedness. Building on an effort to inventory CDC's preparedness and response measures, and building CDC's preparedness strategic planning efforts, the authors have developed a flexible framework for measuring and evaluating public health preparedness programs. Drawing from public policy and evaluation literature, the framework was developed by conducting a review of the public health preparedness literature; creating a logic model of public health preparedness that assumes the national health security goals of preparedness and resiliency; categorizing measures collected during the inventory of CDC preparedness and response capability and capacity measures; and, aligning the measures to the five CDC preparedness objectives and other national preparedness strategies. This presentation describes the proposed framework, proposes methods for testing and refining the framework, and highlights applications. Findings include a need to move toward a consistent, agreed upon set of preparedness measures and CDC should consider integrating the measurement of public health preparedness programs at all levels of government.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Other professions or practice related to public health
Program planning

Learning Objectives:
1) Explain CDC’s approach to developing a measurement model for preparedness 2) Discuss alternatives to assessing and evaluating public health preparedness 3) Assess the validity and application of public health preparedness measures

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Deputy Associate Director for Planning and Evaluation for the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at CDC, a faculty member at Rollins School of Public Health, and I have more than 10 years of experience in public health policy, planning, and evaluation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.