TY - JOUR
T1 - Reexamining Health-Care Coalitions in Light of COVID-19
AU - Barnett, Daniel J.
AU - Knieser, Lauren
AU - Errett, Nicole A.
AU - Rosenblum, Andrew J.
AU - Seshamani, Meena
AU - Kirsch, Thomas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - The national response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted critical weaknesses in domestic health care and public health emergency preparedness, despite nearly 2 decades of federal funding for multiple programs designed to encourage cross-cutting collaboration in emergency response. Health-care coalitions (HCCs), which are funded through the Hospital Preparedness Program, were first piloted in 2007 and have been continuously funded nationwide since 2012 to support broad collaborations across public health, emergency management, emergency medical services, and the emergency response arms of the health-care system within a geographical area. This commentary provides a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to summarize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the current HCC model against the backdrop of COVID-19. We close with concrete recommendations for better leveraging the HCC model for improved health-care system readiness. These include better evaluating the role of HCCs and their members (including the responsibility of the HCC to better communicate and align with other sectors), reconsidering the existing framework for HCC administration, increasing incentives for meaningful community participation in HCC preparedness, and supporting next-generation development of health-care preparedness systems for future pandemics.
AB - The national response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted critical weaknesses in domestic health care and public health emergency preparedness, despite nearly 2 decades of federal funding for multiple programs designed to encourage cross-cutting collaboration in emergency response. Health-care coalitions (HCCs), which are funded through the Hospital Preparedness Program, were first piloted in 2007 and have been continuously funded nationwide since 2012 to support broad collaborations across public health, emergency management, emergency medical services, and the emergency response arms of the health-care system within a geographical area. This commentary provides a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to summarize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the current HCC model against the backdrop of COVID-19. We close with concrete recommendations for better leveraging the HCC model for improved health-care system readiness. These include better evaluating the role of HCCs and their members (including the responsibility of the HCC to better communicate and align with other sectors), reconsidering the existing framework for HCC administration, increasing incentives for meaningful community participation in HCC preparedness, and supporting next-generation development of health-care preparedness systems for future pandemics.
KW - COVID-19
KW - health-care coalitions
KW - hospital preparedness program
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U2 - 10.1017/dmp.2020.431
DO - 10.1017/dmp.2020.431
M3 - Article
C2 - 33143803
AN - SCOPUS:85095792894
SN - 1935-7893
VL - 16
SP - 859
EP - 863
JO - Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
JF - Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
IS - 3
ER -