Focus On - Disaster Preparedness

In 2007, the CDC awarded ATHN a two-year cooperative agreement to develop and implement a National Preparedness Plan to help HTCs minimize patient morbidity and mortality related to a disaster. This plan is central to the data management strategy of ATHN’s 2008 strategic plan and, in essence, helps operationalize NHF’s emergency preparedness recommendations. Dr. Cindy Lessinger, Director of the Hemophilia Center at Tulane University, the HTC most hit by Hurricane Katrina, has agreed to serve on the Project Steering Committee along with NHF, a patient representative and ATHN leadership.

ATHN envisions the plan being used by HTCs to attain pre-emergency/pre-disaster levels of care. Among other important components, the program design calls for the

• development of protocols for 24/7 remote access to data by an HTC in the event of a disaster;
• activation of disaster preparedness pilot sites, including standardized patient reports with core meaningful data in multiple formats and languages, standard patient consents, and staff training; and
• implementation of a communications strategy targeted to HTC staff and patients that will include a toolkit, multilingual materials, web room, regional and national presentations.

ATHN believes that implementation of this National Preparedness Plan will give patients the comfort and the security of knowing what to do in case of a disaster to ensure that appropriate treatment can be received in a timely manner.