Critical Infrastructure Protection

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Specific Plan:

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector-Specific Plan (SSP) was created to complement the National Infrastructure Protection

Plan (NIPP) by developing efforts to improve the protection of the sector in an all-hazards environment. The Healthcare and

Public Health SSP establishes a relationship between government and the private sector to foster the cooperation necessary to improve the protection of the sector from a natural or manmade disaster. The plan sets a path forward for the sector to collectively identify and prioritize its assets, assess risk, implement protective programs, and measure the effectiveness of its protective programs. This document reflects the collaborative efforts between government stakeholders and public and private sector members who are dedicated to the protection of key resources within the Healthcare and Public Health Sector. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in its role as Sector-Specific Agency (SSA), and in collaboration with government and private sector security partners, developed this SSP. The sector is highly diverse in its composition and relationships with its many systems, networks, services, facilities, functions, and roles, both public and private, needed to prevent disease and disability, treat patients, foster public health, and respond to incidents requiring medical and public health services. The private sector, as well as various Federal, State, and local agencies, provide healthcare and public health services and participate in ongoing surveillance and detection of potentially devastating threats to the Nation’s critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) from terrorism and other manmade and natural threats. If these threats were realized, the result could seriously impact public health and economic vitality. In addition, many other sectors rely on Healthcare and Public Health Sector assets and services to ensure resiliency in the face of threats that may result in serious public health consequences (e.g., pandemic influenza).

The SSP is divided into eight sections based on guidance promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to

ensure some consistency across all sectors.

All sector specific plans are re-written on a tri-annual basis with the next iteration due in 2010.

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Specific Plans seek to accomplish the following.

• Reflects unprecedented coordination among the Sector’s public and private partners. Our Sector Partnership Model encompasses Federal, State, local, Tribal, Territorial, and private sector organizations, including owners, operators, and large trade organizations and national associations.
• Provides the road map for strengthening vital infrastructure and reducing vulnerability to all hazards-terrorist attacks and natural disasters alike. 
• Establishes a sector-specific risk-reduction consultative network to exchange best practices and to facilitate rapid threat-based information sharing among the sector’s security partners.

2007 Healthcare and Public Health Sector Specific Plan (Redacted)