News Release

HHS Awards $25 Million in Health Care Partnership Emergency Care

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today awarded $5 million health care partnership emergency care grants to five health care partnerships. The recipients were selected via a competitive process aimed at improving hospital surge capacity, emergency care system capability, and community and hospital preparedness for public health emergencies. 

"The program found five emergency health care partnership projects that can serve as best practices examples for the nation’s public health community," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, RADM W. Craig Vanderwagen, M.D., USPHS.

The projects selected to receive grants are focused on:

• Helping integrate public and private emergency care system capabilities with public health and other first responder systems through periodic preparedness and response capabilities evaluation via drills and exercises; and integrating public and private sector public health and medical donations and volunteers;
• Improving the efficiency, effectiveness and expandability of  emergency care systems and overall preparedness and response capabilities in hospitals, other health care facilities (including mental health and long-term care facilities), and trauma care and emergency medical service systems, with respect to public health emergencies; or
• Developing plans for strengthening public health emergency medical management, and the provision of emergency care and treatment capabilities.

The five lead grant award recipients for each partnership project are:

• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.
• The Regents of the University of California, Davis, Calif.
• MedStar Health, Inc., Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C.
• Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Indianapolis, Ind.
• Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, R.I.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last revised: January 08, 2008