Linking public health agencies and hospitals for improved emergency preparedness: North Carolina's public health epidemiologist program

Linking public health agencies and hospitals for improved emergency preparedness: North Carolina's public health epidemiologist program

BACKGROUND In 2003, 11 public health epidemiologists were placed in North Carolina's largest hospitals to enhance communication between public health agencies and healthcare systems for improved emergency preparedness. We describe the specific services public health epidemiologists provide to local health departments, the North Carolina Division of Public Health, and the hospitals in which they...

Conceptualizing and defining public health emergency preparedness.

This product is part of the RAND Health working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit additional peer review. This paper has been peer reviewed but not edited. Unless otherwise indicated, working papers can be quoted and cited without permission of the author, provided the source is clearly referred to as a working paper. RAND's publ...

Has bioterrorism preparedness improved public health?

In anticipation of future terrorist attacks, the nation has been focused on emergency preparedness, including threats to public health and the ability of communities to respond to them. The Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) recent site visits to 12 nationally representative communities found early benefits to public health due to heightened attention to bioterrorism preparedness:...

Assessing competencies for public health emergency legal preparedness.

journal of law, medicine & ethics Introduction Among the many components of legal preparedness for public health emergencies is the assurance that the public health workforce and its private sector partners are competent to use the law to facilitate the performance of essential public health services and functions.1 This is a significant challenge. Multiple categories of emergencies, stemming f...

Improving competencies for public health emergency legal preparedness.