The U.

S.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) leads the country in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the adverse health effects of emergencies and disasters.

ASPR’s programs

credit:

improve the nation’s ability to withstand adversity, strengthen health and emergency response systems, and enhance national health security.

ASPR’s Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) is the only source of federal funding specifically for health care delivery system readiness.

HPP aims to improve patient outcomes, minimize the need for federal and supplemental state resources during emergencies, and enable rapid recovery from catastrophic events through the development of health care coalitions (HCCs).

HCCs incentivize and support diverse and often competitive health care organizations with differing priorities and objectives to work together to save lives during disasters and emergencies that exceed the day-to-day capacity and capability of individual health care and emergency response systems.

ASPR recognizes that there is shared authority and accountability for the health care delivery system’s readiness that rests with private organizations, government agencies, and states’/jurisdictions’ Emergency Support Function 8 (ESF-8) – Public Health and Medical Services lead agencies.

HCCs serve an important communication and coordination role within their jurisdictions, given the many public and private entities that must come together to ensure health care delivery system readiness.

To describe what health care delivery system partners, including HCCs, health care organizations, and emergency medical services (EMS), must do to effectively prepare for and respond to emergencies ASPR developed the 2017-2022 Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities.

These capabilities illustrate the range of health care preparedness and response activities that, if conducted, represent the ideal state of readiness in the United States.

Individual health care organizations, HCCs, jurisdictions, and other stakeholders that develop the capabilities outlined in the 2017-2022 Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities document will help patients receive the care they need at the right place, at the right time, and with the right resources during emergencies; decrease deaths, injuries, and illnesses resulting from emergencies; and promote health care delivery system resilience in the aftermath of emergencies.

The purpose of this FOA is to strengthen and enhance the acute care medical surge capacity through the maintenance and growth of strong HCCs within each HPP-funded state, territory, freely associated state, and locality.

This FOA provides funds to build acute care medical surge capacity by ensuring that HPP recipients focus on objectives and activities that advance progress toward meeting the goals of the four capabilities detailed in the 2017-2022 Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities and document progress in establishing or maintaining response-ready health care systems through strong HCCs.