We know our stakeholders stay busy during the dog days of summer; ASPR TRACIE is here to help! Due to the heat wave that recently gripped much of the nation, we want to remind you to check out the Lessons Learned: Extreme Heat and Plans, Tools, and Templates: Excessive Heat sections in our Natural Disasters Topic Collection. You also can find related resources in our Utility Failures Topic Collection.

We’ve been busy creating new and updating existing resources that can help with your disaster medicine, healthcare system preparedness, and public health emergency preparedness efforts. We sincerely appreciate your support and encourage you to reach out to us if you have a resource to share or need technical assistance.

In this issue of The Express, we highlight new publications, upcoming events, and updates from our three domains.

In a mass casualty incident, healthcare coalitions (HCCs) need to understand their capacity to accommodate the incident from both the conventional (usual) and contingency or crisis (surge) capacity perspectives. The aggregate of this data can provide critical information about the capacities of the HCC’s acute care hospitals and allow prediction about whether a given incident will overwhelm the local beds available and how much outside support may be required. The Healthcare Coalition Surge Estimator Tool (and accompanying Data Collection Form; both available in Excel) concentrate on key measures that represent conventional and contingency capacity, with the understanding that crisis standards of care may be required when these are insufficient. The information is submitted by each hospital to their HCC for aggregation for use in local, state, and federal planning. Individual hospital data is not submitted to ASPR.

We also encourage you to check out the Healthcare Coalition Pediatric Surge Annex Template which includes general headers and descriptions HCCs can incorporate while developing their own plans. This annex is complemented by our recent comprehensive refresh of the Pediatric Topic Collection.

August 18-20, 2019

The 2019 Community Health Institute & EXPO (held in Chicago) allows health centers to learn more about new disciplines, collaboration, workforce development, technology and pursuing innovative models of care that target both the social determinants of health and address the emerging public health issues and challenges of our day. We invite you to visit ASPR TRACIE’s poster presentation on August 18, from 5:00-6:30 PM.  

September 23-24, 2019

The Public Health & Disasters Conference (held in West Jordan, UT) is an annual, multidisciplinary national conference that brings together professionals from public health, health care, emergency management and other disciplines involved in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from public health emergencies.   

October 9-11, 2019

The 11th Annual Healthcare Preparedness Symposium (held in Galveston, TX) provides an opportunity for national collaboration and information sharing while promoting resiliency in the healthcare community.  

October 13-15, 2019

The 2019 Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo provides home care and hospice professionals the opportunity to network, learn from colleagues and discuss exciting new trends in home care and hospice delivery. ASPR TRACIE will be speaking on the connection between home health and hospice providers and medical surge capabilities.    

November 4-6, 2019

The AHEPP Annual Conference (held in Orlando, FL) provides attendees the opportunity to learn more about research and best practices, network, and collaborate on ways to move healthcare preparedness forward.  

December 2-5, 2019

This year’s National Healthcare Coalition Preparedness Conference is being held in Houston and will focus on how coalitions can contribute to community resilience.