Roundtable: promoting partnerships for regional healthcare preparedness and response.

ON APRIL 4, 2007, THE CENTER FOR Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) convened an invitational meeting to examine the critical elements of regional healthcare partnerships for emergency preparedness and response and to facilitate communication among the federal officials, regional healthcare leaders and institutions, and other stakeholders. Participants included senior officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and state and local leaders in regional healthcare preparedness from hospitals, public health agencies, and dedicated independent nonprofit organizations. A list of participants can be found in the sidebar. Individual comments were not for attribution in order to foster a frank and open discussion. Participants in the meeting were asked to discuss strategies for improving regional healthcare response to disasters in order to (1) facilitate a coordinated response to mass casualty disasters (involving more than one hospital); (2) enable consistent planning; (3) more efficiently use limited preparedness funds; and (4) to provide the building blocks for a response to disasters that affect more than one region. The meeting was prompted by a converging national focus on a regional approach to healthcare response to disasters by local leaders, JCAHO requirements, the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, Hurricane Katrina, pandemic flu preparedness, and the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act, which was passed in December 2006. The agenda for the meeting was derived from the results of a study of 13 regional hospital preparedness efforts,1 as well as discussions held with federal officials and congressional staff and a thorough review of the peer-reviewed literature on this topic. This report is a synopsis of the meeting presentations and group discussions.