Summary
Following the World Trade Center (WTC) attack, the Congress appropriated more than $8 billion to the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency for response and recovery activities. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received some of this funding to establish health screening and monitoring programs for responders to the disaster and later received additional appropriations to fund treatment. In total, about $369.2 million has been appropriated or awarded for the WTC health programs. GAO previously reported on problems that these programs have had in ensuring the availability of services for all responders. GAO was asked to examine lessons from the WTC health programs that could guide future programs. GAO examined (1) lessons from the programs' experience and (2) HHS actions or plans that incorporate the lessons. GAO interviewed WTC health program officials and other experts and reviewed DHS and HHS documents.
GAO identified five important lessons from the experience of the WTC health programs that could help with the development of responder health programs in the event of a future disaster. First, registering all responders during a response to a disaster could improve implementation of screening and monitoring services. Second, designing and implementing screening and monitoring programs that foster the ability to conduct epidemiologic research could improve the understanding of health effects experienced by responders and help determine the need for ongoing monitoring. Third, providing timely mental health screening and monitoring that is integrated with physical health screening and monitoring could improve the ability to accurately diagnose physical and mental health conditions and prevent more serious mental health conditions from developing. Fourth, including a treatment referral process in screening and monitoring programs could improve the ability of responders to gain access to needed treatment. Fifth, making comparable services available to all responders, regardless of their employer or geographic location, could ensure more equitable access to services for responders and help ensure that data collected about responders' health are consistent and comprehensive. HHS has taken steps to facilitate responder registration, but has not developed a department-level plan for responder health programs. HHS's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has developed a survey instrument that state and local entities can adopt to register responders and other individuals exposed to a disaster. In a separate effort, HHS's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is taking steps to establish a system to register HHS employees and other federal public health and medical personnel who are deployed to a disaster, but it has not completed this effort. HHS has not developed a department-level plan for designing and implementing responder health programs that incorporates the five lessons from the WTC health programs. As a result, HHS has not indicated whether its policies and actions following a disaster or emergency would apply these lessons. Another consequence of not having a plan is that HHS has not described its components' roles and responsibilities for designing and implementing responder health programs. It has not identified which HHS components would be involved in responder health programs, which component would take the lead, how the expertise of various components would be used, or how efforts would be coordinated. In the absence of a department-level plan, HHS's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health developed a proposal in February 2008 for a project to develop strategies to ensure responder safety and health. While GAO concluded that this proposal is a step in the right direction for addressing responder health issues, it noted that the proposal does not fully address the lessons that have been identified from the WTC health programs.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Cynthia A. Bascetta
Government Accountability Office: Health Care
(202) 512-7207
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To ensure that effective programs are developed to deal with the health effects that responders may experience in the event of a future disaster, Secretary of HHS should develop a department-level responder screening and monitoring plan that defines the roles and responsibilities of HHS components and incorporates the five lessons identified from the experience of the WTC health programs. Specifically, this plan should facilitate the registration of all responders and ensure that screening and monitoring services are designed to foster epidemiologic research; provide timely mental health screening and monitoring that is integrated with physical health screening and monitoring; include a treatment referral process; and make comparable services available to all responders, regardless of their employer or geographic location.
Agency Affected: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
