Pursuing Project Public Health Ready (PPHR) While Facing Many Local Diversities
Mar 27, 2015
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Alyson Jordan
Florida Department of Health in Duval County (DOH-Duval County) pursued Project Public Health Ready (PPHR) in hopes of better preparing the county to plan for, respond to and recover from public health emergencies. Emergency preparedness planning in Duval County is no easy charge. The Consolidated City of Jacksonville/Duval County is a rapidly growing metropolitan area in Northeast Florida, with approximately 850,000 people. Planning challenges stem from the large geographical region that the county covers. The sheer size of the region causes health department resources and partner organizations to be widely dispersed throughout the district. In addition to the work load created by supporting such a large county, the health department is also challenged by repeated threats of hurricanes with associated hazards of wind damage, surge and flooding. While face to face meetings with the department’s planning team are critical to ensure effective communication and constant information flow during a hurricane response, organizing them is difficult when staff are stretched so thinly over such a large region.