226269 Addressing the needs of the uninsured, underinsured, and medically underserved population in Maryland: Emergency preparedness planning for community health centers

Monday, November 8, 2010

Veronica Black, MBA , Office of Preparedness and Response, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore, MD
Isaac Ajit, MBChB, MPH , Office of Preparedness and Response, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore, MD
Sherry Adams, RN, CPM , Office of Preparedness and Response, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore, MD
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) has taken many steps to enhance Maryland's healthcare systems' emergency preparedness efforts. Generally, the focus has been on enhancing the capacities and capabilities of acute care hospitals that will undoubtedly receive the most patients during a disaster or public health event. However, improving the capacities and capabilities of community health centers are equally imperative to address the needs of over 300,000 (5% of Maryland's population) uninsured, underinsured and medically underserved population. DHMH has partnered with Mid-Atlantic Association of Community Health Centers (MACHC) to improve the readiness of federally qualified health centers (FQHC) and community health centers with support from the Department of Health and Human Services the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Hospital Preparedness Program. DHMH and MACHC have enhanced the health centers emergency preparedness efforts by coordinating medical surge planning, providing interoperable communications equipment, conducting drills and exercises, participating in emergency preparedness education and training opportunities, as well as equipping the centers with supplies and materials to respond to a potential disaster or public health event. Enhancing these community centers will enable clinicians to address the needs of the non critical uninsured, underinsured and medically underserved in the event of a disaster or public health event. Hence, these individuals will not have to seek medical attention at hospital emergency rooms, decompressing the volume of patients which will allow hospitals to concentrate their resources on the more critically injured patients.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Explain the effectiveness of enhancing emergency preparedness capacities and capabilities of federally qualified health centers to address the needs of the uninsured, underinsured, and medically underserved population in the event of disaster or public health event. Discuss how to work with community health centers to improve Maryland’s readiness to respond to natural or non natural disaster or public health event.

Keywords: Planning, Community Health Centers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I oversee the Hospital Preparedness Program for the state of Maryland and know first hand the benefits of collaborating emergency preparedness efforts with community health centers.
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.