Located in western Colorado, the Mesa County APC recognized that hospitals have a difficult time retaining staff and that many hospitals have not used volunteer nurses or other medical professionals during an emergency response. The Mesa County APC will develop and test a toolkit that includes information on the following:
Identifying roles in hospitals appropriate for using medical volunteers in an emergency;
Identifying action steps to implement a medical volunteer program in a hospital;
Developing policies and procedures for the use of Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteers in a hospital;
Developing Just-in-Time training curriculum; and
Conducting a functional exercise using MRC volunteers in a rural hospital.
Located in northwest Oregon, the Multnomah County APC will focus on Just-in-Time training to help LHDs prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. Resources will include the following:
Training materials designed for incident response managers including information on the behavioral and emotional needs of first responders;
Risk assessment practices to help managers split resources; and
Just-in-Time training products for staff working on epidemiological investigation activities or Point of Dispensing operations.
Located in a state home to many public health emergencies including fires, floods, and earthquakes, the San Francisco APC will develop comprehensive toolkits on the topics of infectious disease emergencies and vaccine allocation.
The infectious disease toolkit will be the following:
Modular to allow for the activation of different sections depending on the emergency;
Scalable to account for varying lengths of emergencies; and
Specific to the activities that take place during a public health response.
The vaccine allocation toolkit will provide guidance on the following:
The Seattle & King County APC, located within the largest metropolitan health department in the U.S., will create multiple resources that include the following:
A comic book to communicate personal preparedness messages to limited English proficient populations;
A toolkit to assist LHDs enhance the capacity of their call center;
A toolkit to help LHDs create effective and sustainable dispensing strategies;
Resources to address the informational and behavioral needs of disaster victims' families; and
A toolkit focusing on business continuity in an emergency.
The South Carolina APC, housed in the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Region 7, serves a population of more than 600,000 across three counties. The South Carolina APC will focus on security issues during various public health emergency response activities. Resources will include the following:
A healthcare and law enforcement workshop template to engage law enforcement agencies in public health preparedness planning;
A Point of Dispensing security and traffic management template; and
A hospital security plan template for medical surge.
The Tarrant County APC, located in Fort Worth, TX, will develop a number of projects including the following:
A toolkit to assist LHDs in establishing health data surveillance programs in school settings;
A disaster mental health and psychological first aid module for radiological and nuclear events;
Business preparedness resources for Hispanic businesses; and
An evaluation framework and guidance document to help LHDs assess the quality of emergency communications (fact sheets, virtual Joint Information Centers, and Point of Dispensing signage).
Located in northwest Ohio, the Toledo-Lucas County APC will develop a toolkit to enhance LHDs capability of responding during a pandemic. The Transitional Framework for Pandemic Readiness and Response toolkit will provide resources to help communities identify when and how to move from traditional to transitional medicine and will focus on various frameworks including urban, suburban, and rural. The toolkit will include the following:
A guide to the Transitional Framework for Pandemic Readiness;
Train-the-Trainer manual for a transitional medicine tabletop exercise; and
Train-the-Trainer manual for a traditional medicine tabletop exercise.
Since the APC Program's inception in 2004, a number of LHDs have served as an APC. While a part of the APC network, these LHDs developed outstanding tools and resources for other LHDs nationwide. Alumni APCs include the following:
