Analysis of CDC preparedness and response measures

Public health preparedness is the capability of the public health system, communities, and individuals to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health emergencies, particularly those in which scale, timing or unpredictability threatens to overwhelm routine capabilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plays a critical role in responding to public health emergencies including 2009 Pandemic Influenza A H1N1, hurricanes and other natural disasters, biological and intentional terrorist attacks and is responsible for providing rapid public health emergency preparedness and response. A team formed as part of CDC's Leadership and Management Institute (LMI) analyzed CDC preparedness and response measurement efforts, including Performance Assessment Reporting Tool (PART) measures, performance measures reported in the CDC budget, and program measures. CDC preparedness and response capability and capacity measures were inventoried. A matrix was developed to compile a comprehensive list of these CDC responsibilities based on the documents reviewed. The results were cross-referenced against CDC's five functional goal objectives. The cross-referencing provided a validation that the five functional goal objectives provided a sufficient architecture for agency planning. The list of capabilities was prioritized by identifying and ranking the frequency of capabilities from the multiple sources. From the list of documents that were received from the Coordinating Centers, identified measures were compiled into a Master Measure List. This presentation will describe the methods used for analysis and measurement, findings, limitations, identified gaps and recommendations for moving toward building, resourcing and institutionalizing expertise in preparedness performance measurement development and monitoring.