OBJECTIVES All-hazards preparedness was evaluated in North Carolina's 85 local health departments (LHDs). METHODS In regional meetings, data were collected from LHD teams from North Carolina's LHDs using an instrument constructed from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's preparedness indicators and from the Local Public Health Preparedness and Response Capacity Inventory. RESULTS AN...

Public health preparedness has emerged as a major issue in U.S. health policy. The concept of public health preparedness encompasses many facets; one of the most central capabilities in a prepared environment is the ability to rapidly deploy emergency health care responders both during an emergency and in its immediate aftermath. In a post-September 11 society, public officials have redoubled e...

When the local health department of Montgomery County, Maryland, was chosen to participate in Project Public Health Ready and was charged with the daunting task of providing a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan, training all 600 employees to carry out that plan, and conducting exercises to demonstrate the department's competency, it realized it couldn't do it alone. The department sought...

Behavioral economics is based on the idea that individuals' decisions are affected by systematic and predictable cognitive biases and that these same biases can be leveraged to change behavior and improve decision-making. Insights from behavioral economics have been used to encourage a range of desired behaviors but have rarely been used in disaster preparedness and response, though traditional...