reported they had conducted testing and Local Plans in Practice: More and more LHDs are testing their emergency response activities on a variety of levels.
notification drills in tandem with the CDC's Laboratory Response Network for Biological and Chemical Terrorism and the Director's
100
Emergency Operations Center.
90
Ongoing challenges
80
Gaps still exist in the areas of cata-
70 60
strophic disaster response, radioanalytical
50
testing and workforce development. Many LHDs lack plans for mass patient care and
40
fatality management. Even at LHDs where
30
these plans might exist, staffing might not
20
be adequate to support them. Forty-three
10
percent of small LHDs and nine percent of
0 % of LHDs that had conducted an exercise or drill to test their emergency response plans
% of LHDs that participated in at least one tabletop exercise
% of LHDs that % of LHDs that participated in participated in at least one at least one functional exercise full-scale exercise
medium-sized LHDs have no staff dedicated to preparedness activities. While faced with declining funding and workforce recruitment and retention challenges, only 36 percent of LHDs have completed a workforce development plan that establishes a priority list of staff requiring training. In addition, only
Source: PHEP Partners Assessment, NACCHO data.
one-third of LHDs have completed a training needs assessment of the staff
Gaps still exist in areas of catastrophic disaster response, radioanalytical testing and workforce development.
SPHLs have expanded their roles as a resource and reached out in emergencyresponse partnerships. According to a
competency of their departments’ allhazards response plans. Workforce issues also impact SPHLs
May 2008 APHL report on laboratory
and limit their capacity for preparedness and
preparedness, in one year, SPHLs received
response. Fewer than a quarter of SPHLs
more than 5,000 unknown samples (3,614
report being able to actually screen or test
environmental samples and 1,686 clinical
clinical specimens for radiation. States that
specimens) for testing for suspected
do have trained employees have only one or
terrorism agents. Moreover, 45 SPHLs also
two individuals trained to test for radionuclides, which would not be enough to test the overwhelming number of samples that
6
Public Health Emergency Preparedness Six Years of Achievement