The Express, September 2021

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Public Health Emergency

The Express: September 2021

This issue of The Express highlights the following new resources:

The Effect of COVID-19 on the Healthcare Incident Command System
COVID-19: Concerns and Opportunities for Healthcare Leadership
Innovations in COVID-19 Patient Surge Management
The Work-Life Pandemic Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Back Together, but Better (speaker series recording)
Poison Center Roles during the Pandemic (speaker series recording)
Pharmaceutical Cache Resources (technical assistance [TA] response)
Hospital Surge of Patients with Behavioral Health Challenges during COVID-19 (TA response)
Afghan Relocation Response (TA response)

ASPR TRACIE recently launched a COVID-19 Patient Surge and Scarce Resource Allocation page where users can easily access related information. Our Hurricane Resources Page, Issue 10 of The Exchange (on preparing for and responding to wildfires and planned outages), and Natural Disasters Topic Collection (featuring a new video “Wildfire Smoke and Indoor Air Quality: How to Create a Clean Room at Home”) may be useful as our stakeholders experience related challenges.

Please continue to access our Novel Coronavirus Resources Page, the National Institutes of Health Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Treatment Guidelines, and CDC’s Coronavirus webpage, and reach out if you need technical assistance.

The Effect of COVID-19 on the Healthcare Incident Command System

This tip sheet highlights several key observations about how healthcare incident command systems functioned during the COVID-19 pandemic and includes lessons learned collected from interviews, surveys, and literature reviews as of August 2021. While the intended audience of this document includes healthcare facilities (HCF), emergency managers, and healthcare executives and leadership, additional stakeholders including regional HCFs, emergency response teams, healthcare coalition members, vendors, and staff involved in emergency response may also find this information useful.

COVID-19: Concerns and Opportunities for Healthcare Leadership

Healthcare leadership is essential in ensuring continuity of operations based on effective decision making. During the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in healthcare innovated to address COVID-related challenges, safeguarding infrastructure, staff, and patients while maintaining their institutions’ mission and values. This resource highlights some of the considerations and promising practices that healthcare executives may consider implementing in their systems during the pandemic and beyond.

Innovations in COVID-19 Patient Surge Management

This tip sheet summarizes four healthcare executives’ experience with statewide patient surge management during COVID-19 and lessons learned gleaned from other resources. (Access the full report for more information.)

The Work-Life Pandemic Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Back Together, but Better

In this recording, Dr. Lois Lee (Senior Associate in Pediatrics), Dr. Rebekah Mannix (Senior Associate in Pediatrics), and Dr. Kelsey Miller (Attending Physician) (all from the Division of Emergency Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital) shared how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the emotional and professional landscapes for healthcare professionals—particularly women in healthcare.

Poison Center Roles during the Pandemic

Julie Weber, RPh, CSPI, President, American Association of Poison Control Centers, and Director of the Missouri Poison Center in SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital highlighted the role of poison centers in public health and response, how staff are integrated into disaster response, and data related to calls received during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both the Work-Life Pandemic Puzzle and the Poison Center Roles recordings are part of the COVID-19 Healthcare Operations Speaker Series.

New ASPR TRACIE TA Responses

Pharmaceutical Cache Resources provides resources related to healthcare coalitions and the acquisition of pharmaceuticals and other supplies, such as personal protective equipment.
Hospital Surge of Patients with Behavioral Health Challenges during COVID-19 includes comments from ASPR TRACIE Subject Matter Expert Cadre members and resources related to the surge of patients with behavioral health challenges in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Afghan Relocation Response provides considerations for healthcare facilities planning for and responding to the Afghan Evacuation/Operation Allies Welcome Response.

Subscribe to the Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection’s Bulletins

ASPR’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) offers a variety of newsletters to keep stakeholders informed during emergency response and steady state. The newsletters inform stakeholders of the most significant issues facing the Healthcare and Public Health Sector including cybersecurity, healthcare supply chains, COVID-19, and more. If you are interested in receiving CIP newsletters, visit the CIP newsletter subscription webpage.

COVID-19 Clinical Rounds Are Back!

Peer-to-Peer Virtual Communities of Practice, a collaborative effort between ASPR, the National Emerging Special Pathogen Training and Education Center (NETEC), and Project ECHO, hosts weekly training opportunities where clinicians from the U.S. and abroad who have experience treating patients with COVID-19 shared their challenges and successes. Access past sessions and sign up to receive updates.