As summer turns to fall, our country continues to recover from the worst mass shooting in recent history and three historic hurricanes that battered the Gulf States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. States in the west continue to fight and recover from wildfires, and flu season has begun. The ASPR TRACIE Team would like to remind our readers of the various resources we have created with subject matter expert input and our recently released tutorials that can help you make the most out of your ASPR TRACIE experience. 

This issue of The Express includes information on mass violence, hurricanes, disaster behavioral health, cybersecurity, information on upcoming ASPR TRACIE webinars, recent webinar recordings, links to new and updated resources, and updates regarding the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule.  

Is your health care facility prepared for a cyberattack? Do you practice cyber hygiene? In this ASPR TRACIE roundtable, speakers shared lessons learned from the attack on MedStar Health, general information about cyberattacks and cyber hygiene, and the collaborative effort being taken by the federal government to address this threat. The resources in our Cybersecurity Topic Collection can help stakeholders better protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from cyber threats, ensuring patient safety and operational continuity. Authors share their stories (from federal, state, and local perspectives) in Issue 2 of The Exchange.  

Don’t forget to visit the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a trusted community of critical infrastructure owners and operators within the Health Care and Public Health Sector dedicated to improving cyber resiliency for Health Care and Public Health Sector Information Technology professionals. Questions or comments on cyber issues should be directed to the ASPR CIP team. 

Join health and human service agencies from Louisiana as they share lessons learned from the 2016 floods on October 18, from 2:00-3:00 ET. The webinar Health and Social Services Recovery Lessons Learned from the 2016 Louisiana Flooding will feature speakers discussing how they managed their recovery, organized, designed, and implemented federally- compliant recovery programs, and delivered the best possible services to their communities. Register now—space is limited.  

On November 9, from 2:00-3:00 ET, join ASPR TRACIE and the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC) for the webinar Highly Pathogenic Infectious Disease Exercise Planning for Health Care Coalitions. This fourth in a series of joint webinars will highlight NETEC’s free exercise templates for HCCs to test their readiness to manage patients suspected or known to have a highly infectious disease and will feature speakers from HCCs that have already exercised their plans. Register now—space is limited.  

Attending the Association of Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Professionals conference? Check out our panel on November 9, from 2:30-3:30 ET, where you can learn more about how ASPR TRACIE can work for you from Shayne Brannman, our Program Director.  

Be sure to check out our panel on November 29, from 10:45-12:00 ET at the National Healthcare Coalition Preparedness Conference! Our team will share information on just-released tools for coalitions. Don’t forget to stop by our poster presentation on Disaster Medication Stocking and Shortages, too. 

ASPR TRACIE hosted New Resources to Help Improve Health Care Coalition Preparedness on September 14. During this webinar, speakers provided an overview of tools and templates designed to help coalitions maximize effort. This fact sheet includes links to select tools and templates; access our coalition-specific webpage for other resources.  

Together with NETEC, we held the Highly Pathogenic Infectious Disease Exercise Planning for Regional Transport webinar on August 23. Speakers shared tips and lessons learned from recent regional transport exercises in Maryland, Texas, and Nevada. 

CMS has developed the new Emergency Preparedness Training Online Course which is available 24/7. This course is required for all State Survey Agency and Regional Office surveyors and reviewers who conduct or review health and safety or Life Safety Code surveys for emergency preparedness requirements. Non-survey professionals involved in and responsible for ensuring compliance with regulations are also encouraged to take the course. Accessing the course is simple: When you navigate to the Integrated Surveyor Training Website  (https://surveyortraining.cms.hhs.gov), click on "I am a Provider." Next, click on the course catalog and search for the “Emergency Preparedness” course. You do not need a username and password when accessing the course through the provider link. If you need technical assistance, please contact the CMS ISTW Help Desk at 1-855-791-8900 or [email protected]. Surveying for the emergency preparedness requirements begins November 15.

Additional resources can be found on the ASPR TRACIE CMS EP Rule page and in the recently updated ASPR TRACIE CMS and Disasters: Resources at Your Fingertips document. 

Don’t forget about the Advanced Copy of CMS Interpretive Guidance and CMS’ Surveyor Tool, which illustrates whether and how each of the 17 provider types is affected by specific Code of Federal Regulations citations.