FY 2021 Regional Disaster Health Response System Grant Program in the US

Deadline: 20-Sep-21

Applications are now open for Regional Disaster Health Response System Grant Program to complement existing Medical Surge Capacity and Capability (MSCC) , foundation for local or sub-state medical response (e.g., trauma systems and health care coalitions (HCCs)) by enhancing coordination mechanisms and incorporating discrete clinical and administrative capabilities at the state and regional levels.

The RDHRS integrates clinical and health care systems’ operational expertise into existing preparedness and response structures at the local, state, and regional level, and expands capabilities and capacity for improving disaster readiness across the health care system, increasing medical surge capacity, and providing specialty care – including trauma, burn and infectious disease, among others – during large-scale disasters or public health emergencies.

RDHRS sites build on existing medical surge and disaster preparedness foundations across industry and government, fostering and mature multi-state partnerships as well as industry assets to create an integrated, tiered system of disaster health care.

Strategies

The partnership will demonstrate the following capabilities in support of a coordinated, statewide and regional emergency response. The recipient must address all components included in the “objectives” and “activities” listed below in their application.The recipient is encouraged to work with partners, such as statewide and regional HCCs, to prioritize objectives and activities based on regional needs.

• Capability 1: Build a Partnership for Disaster Health Response
  • Objective 1: Establish and Build a Partnership for Disaster Health Response
    • Activity 1: Identify partnership members and build the necessary relationships to facilitate statewide coordination of health and medical assets in disaster planning and response.
    • Activity 2: Propose and implement a governance structure for the partnership that enables performance of the requisite capabilities, objectives, and activities.
    • Activity 3: Identify and buildmechanisms that enable the partnership to coordinate with equivalent entities in other states in their HHS region.
• Capability 2: Align Plans, Policies, Processes, and Procedures Related to Clinical Excellence in Disasters
  • Objective 1: Identify and Address Critical Clinical Capabilities and Gaps in Existing Disaster Plans
    • Activity 1: Assess statewide risk and vulnerabilities related to the clinical management of patients.
    • Activity 2: Identify and document planning gaps related to clinical surge capacity, addressing those gapswhere possible.
  • Objective 2: Align Existing Coalition and State Response Plans to Facilitate Coordinated Medical Surge
    • Activity 1: Build a framework for the coordination of planning activities related to the management of patients in disasters across all RDHRS tiers (i.e., coalition-,state-, and regional-levels).
  • Objective 3: Facilitate Legal and Policy Coordination and Alignment
    • Activity 1: Identify laws, regulations, and policies that impact the establishment of statewide and regional (i.e., multi-state) coordination of healthcare in disaster planning and response.
    • Activity 2: Establish a mechanism for real-time legal, regulatory, and policy discussion related to the coordination of patient care in disasters.
• Capability 3: Increase Statewide and Regional Medical Surge Capacity
  • Objective 1: Train and Prepare the Health Care and Medical Workforce
    • Activity 1: Educate and train the health care and medical workforce on identified preparedness and response gaps related to the clinical management of patients.
    • Activity 2: Identify and develop the clinical expertise needed to support medical surge in large-scale and highly specialized disaster scenarios.
  • Objective 2: Identify and Utilize Health Care Surge Professionals
    • Activity 1: Draft a plan for the use of health care surge professionals internal and external to the state.
  • Objective 3: Increase Readiness for Medical Surge
    • Activity 1: Improve inpatient, hospital, and EMS surge response.
    • Activity 2: Improve out-of-hospital medical surge response
    • Activity 3: Develop a clinical virtual support system and alternate care telephonic support system.
  • Objective 4: Plan for and Coordinate Health Care Evacuation andRelocation
    • Activity 1: Identify shortcomings in patient evacuation and relocationplans.
    • Activity 2: Describe the process for patient tracking and transport.
  • Objective 5: Maintain Access to Supplies and Equipment during an Emergency
    • Activity 1: Assess supply chain integrity.
    • Activity 2: Assess and address equipment, supply, and pharmaceutical requirements.
• Capability 4: Improve Statewide and Regional Situational Awareness
  • Objective 1: Utilize Information Sharing Procedures and Platforms
    • Activity 1: Coordinate statewide health care situational awareness.
    • Activity 2: Identify information access and data protection procedures.
    • Activity 3: Utilize communication systems and platforms.
• Capability 5: Develop Readiness Metrics and Conduct an Exercise to Test Capabilities
  • Objective 1: Test and Refine Existing Readiness Metrics,Developing Additional Metrics As Needed
    • Activity 1: In collaboration with ASPR, test, develop, and implement readiness metrics for peer review assessments, monitoring, recognition reporting, and a “Response Ready” designation program for coalitions.
  • Objective 2: Conduct an Exercise to Test Medical Surge and Situational Awareness Capabilities
    • Activity 1: Conduct at least one readiness exercise during the project period that measures the readiness of the coalitions’ surge capacity and demonstrates the ability to coordinate health care service delivery at the statewide and/or regional (i.e., interstate) level.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Program Funding: $3,000,000
• Award Ceiling: $3,000,000
• Award Floor: $3,000,000
• Anticipated Number of Awards: 1
• Project Period Length: 12 months (one year)
• Anticipated Start Date: September 30, 2021
• Expected Duration of Support: 12 months (one year)
• Type of Assistance Instrument: Cooperative Agreement

Outcomes

• The recipient will establish a regional Partnership of healthcare and governmental partners relevant to the coordinated delivery of patient care in disasters. The recipient is encouraged to begin with statewide structures to build a strong foundation for further expansion into the region.
• The Partnership will operationalize the capabilities necessary for effective and coordinated emergency response to identify leading practices, lessonslearned, and barriers to state- and region-wide implementation and coordination of the RDHRS concept.
• The Partnership will test, refine, and add to previously developed draft RDHRS readiness metrics related to the operational capabilities.
• The Partnership will conduct a state- or region-wide exercise to test the operationalization of these capabilities.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for an award through this announcement, an entity shall be a partnership consisting of the following required members:
  • one or more hospitals, at least one of which shall be a designated traumacenter,  ,
  • one or more other local health care facilities, including clinics, health centers, community health centers, primary care facilities, mental health centers, mobile medical assets, orlong-term care facilities;
  • one or more political subdivisions; one or more states orone or more states and one or more political subdivisions; and
  • one or more emergency medical service organizations or emergency management organizations.
• The applicant will have to designate a primary recipient, which according to the statutory authority for this cooperative agreement can be any of the entities That primary recipient must represent a multi-entity partnership comprised of the required members. While the partnership must include the required members described, there is no limitation on the total number of entities that can participate in the partnership.
• Eligible applicants are defined in the statutory authority for this cooperative agreement.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335346