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National Health Preparedness and Response Centers: Revisiting the Increasingly Critical Need to Expand Cooperative Emergency Response Capabilities in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

Donald A. Donahue ,
Frederick M. Burkle Jr.  and
Ronald R. Blanck
Donald A. Donahue*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland Baltimore, The Graduate School; University of Maryland Global Campus, The Business School
Frederick M. Burkle Jr.
Affiliation:
Harvard School of Public Health; Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Ronald R. Blanck
Affiliation:
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Chair, Board of Regents
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Donald Donahue, 18823 New Hampshire Avenue, Ashton, MD20861 (e-mail: donald.donahuejr@verizon.net).
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Abstract

In 1999, a robust National Health Preparedness and Response Center was conceptualized and piloted, but never fully operationalized. This study revisits the expansive, coordinated efforts invested in this concept, considered an overdue remedy for persistent shortfalls in medical Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Yield Explosives training, proficiency, and preparation. The concept defined a robust mission for longstanding, proven programs for prepositioning equipment and associated training of personnel. This study explores the reasons that ended military and governmental support, attendant funding, and operations of the created Joint/Interagency Civil Support Center, which ceased on September 30, 2006. Unfortunately, the concept remains relevant. Major gaps in disaster medical response capabilities have been recognized for decades. Experts from the Institute of Medicine, United States Northern Command, and multiple academic centers and professional organizations have identified these shortcomings, but the national response posture remains disjointed, under-resourced, and based upon obsolete planning premises. Given increasing threats, the authors recommend revisiting the collaboration of military, civilian, academic, and governmental resources that once established the Joint/Interagency Civil Support Center as a multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary model for a new National Health Preparedness and Response Center coordinated framework for enhanced resilience and operational response capabilities on a national level.

Keywords

chemicalbiological and radiation disastersdisaster preparednessdisaster responsemultidisciplinary national response
Type
Concepts in Disaster Medicine
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , June 2021 , pp. 358 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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