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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response

This issue of The Express highlights the following resources:

• New! About ASPR TRACIE Video
• The Hurricane Ian Experience at Lee Health: Wreckage, Resilience, and Recovery (Speaker Series Recording)
• City of Jackson Water Crisis Response (Speaker Series Recording) 
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Emergency Preparedness Rule Requirements: Rural Emergency Hospitals
• Medical Countermeasure Commercialization Topic Collection
• Upcoming Conferences: Emergency Management Association of Georgia’s (EMAG) Emergency Management Summit and Training Sessions and The 2023 Preparedness Summit

Please also continue to access our Natural Disasters Topic Collection and reach out if you need technical assistance.

This new video provides an overview of ASPR TRACIE and acknowledges our partners and stakeholders for their role in our success. Access our 2022 Year in Review document that includes links to all resources developed last year.

Healthcare System Preparedness Considerations Speaker Series (New Recordings) 

Two new recordings highlight how hospitals overcame utility outages and other damage after local disasters.

• Dave Kistel (vice president and Chief Facilities Executive) describes how Lee Health prepared for, responded to, and recovered from Hurricane Ian.
• Jim Craig (senior deputy with the Mississippi State Department of Health), and Dr. Damon A. Darsey (an acute care consultant with Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System), share their experiences during the 2022 long-term water outage that impacted the City of Jackson, Mississippi.

Access the rest of the Healthcare System Preparedness Considerations speaker series recordings to learn how the healthcare field has incorporated lessons learned to continuously improve patient care and bolster provider and system resilience.

CMS Rural Emergency Hospitals Emergency Preparedness Rule Requirements

Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs) are a new Medicare Part A provider type and as of January 1, 2023, CMS pays for Medicare-enrolled REHs to deliver emergency hospital, observation, and other services to Medicare patients on an outpatient basis. The Rural Emergency Hospitals Requirements document combines excerpts from the Final Rule and existing Interpretive Guidelines to provide a consolidated overview document of requirements for these providers. 

Medical Countermeasure Commercialization Topic Collection

The COVID-19 pandemic required unprecedented coordination and cooperation between the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical industry to bring vaccines to the public in record time. While the U.S. government was initially the exclusive purchaser and distributer of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, these countermeasures will increasingly shift to being provided by commercial markets and accessible to people through traditional pathways. The Medical Countermeasure Commercialization Topic Collection provides resources on the shift of products from government purchasing and distribution to commercial channels. 

Upcoming Conferences

ASPR TRACIE will be presenting at the following conferences:

* EMAG’s Emergency Management Summit and Training Sessions

• Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Resources: Tools for Success (April 13, 10:15-11:30 AM)

* The 2023 Preparedness Summit

• DASHing to Preparedness: A Tool to Help Your Community Estimate Medical Supply Needs (April 25, 4:30-5:15 PM)
• Incorporating Lessons Learned in Managing Special Pathogens (April 26, 4:30-5:15 PM)
• Individual and Community-Centered Approaches: Disaster Behavioral Health Across Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (April 26, 4:30-5:15 PM)

Updates from the Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection

ASPR’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) offers a variety of newsletters to keep stakeholders informed during emergency response and steady state. The newsletters inform stakeholders of the most significant issues facing the Healthcare and Public Health Sector including cybersecurity, healthcare supply chains, COVID-19, and more. If you are interested in receiving CIP newsletters, visit the CIP newsletter subscription webpage.