Case Study

Hospitals Unprepared for Epidemic Control

The nation's hospital response capacity and public health infrastructure have been compromised by decades of neglect. Although attention is now being focused on bolstering response capacity, the nation still faces serious issues:

• High vacancies exist for all U.S. hospital staff including nurses, imaging technicians, and pharmacists. More than three-fourths of urban emergency departments operate "at" or "over" capacity. In other words, too few professionals exist to staff these critical positions within hospitals across the country. The demands that would be placed on hospitals during a large-scale or prolonged epidemic would be grave.
• Only 2 states (FL, IL) are now prepared to deploy adequate personnel to break down the Strategic National Stockpile of drugs, antidotes, and medical supplies once it arrives.
• Few trained disaster mental health professionals, a weak infrastructure for implementing broad mental health protections, little knowledge on effective treatment, and scarce funds for long-term mental health care inhibit U.S. response to terrorism's psychological effects.
  

References

American Hospital Association. Cracks in the foundation: averting a crisis in America's hospitals. Washington, DC: AHA, August 2002.

Trust for America's Health. Ready or Not?: Protecting the Public's Health in the Age of Bioterrorism. Washington, DC, December 2003; 7.

Institute of Medicine. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism: A Public Health Strategy. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2003.