Over the past decade, several tools have been developed to define and assess public health preparedness at the local, state, and federal levels. However, despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified expanded regional collaboration as one of three overarching priorities for the nation in 2006, no comprehensive definition or tool existed to assess regional preparedness. The purpose of the Assessing Regional Public Health Preparedness in Region X project was to develop a coherent conceptual framework as well as a discrete checklist to assess regional public health emergency preparedness. The framework and checklist is to be used by Regional Health Administrators (RHAs) to:

1. Identify cross-border issues related to public health preparedness;
2. Assist the U.S. DHHS Regional Emergency Coordinators (RECs) in assessing the cross-border preparedness needs of their region; and,
3. Work collaboratively with state public health officials to identify and address cross-border preparedness issues.

This project focused on United States Public Health Service Region X—which consists of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington—and British Columbia; but the final checklist was designed to be applicable in all regions across the United States.

We defined regional preparedness as a set of active systems, agreements, and procedures in place at a regional level (i.e., cross-state or international jurisdiction) to anticipate, respond to, and recover from natural and man-made disasters. For purposes of this project, then, the term regional refers only to that set of preparedness activities that occur across state and international borders. We also determined that the minimum evidence of cross-border preparedness would be a documented set of active systems, protocols, procedures, and agreements to facilitate collaboration during a response to a disaster or other health threat.

The project was implemented through a partnership between the Region X Office of the Regional Health Administrator (ORHA) and the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP) at the University of Washington (UW) and funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for the funding period of September 29, 2005, to September 28, 2006.

Downloads

Full report—A Framework for Assessing Regional Public Health Preparedness
Checklist only—Regional Assessment Checklist