Regional coordination key to bioterrorism preparedness

AORN Journal,  August, 2004  

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Some bioterrorism preparedness and response capabilities may be improved by coordinating resources across local and state lines (ie, regionalization), according to a May 7, 2004, news release from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The report, Regionalization of Bioterrorism Preparedness end Response, released by the AHRQ, identifies three important ways regionalization can make a difference in communities' response to a bioterrorism emergency.

* Regionalization may help communities with surge capacity lie, a health care system's ability to rapidly expand beyond normal services) to provide critical response services, such as medical care, distribution and dispensing of preventive medications, emergency management, and outbreak investigation.

* The best way for state and local governments to use scarce resources during a bioterrorism emergency may be by joining with other communities to develop teams of trained response personnel and maintain supplies of response equipment.

* Preexisting agreements and written plans that specify roles, payment, and chain of command may help in coordinating the numerous response organizations likely to be involved.

Researchers found that most of the federal, state, and local organizations likely to be part of a regional response were designed independently or for purposes other than responding to bioterrorism, and efforts to coordinate them to respond to bioterrorism have just begun. In reviewing the available literature, researchers found few evaluations of systems relevant to preparedness and even fewer evaluations of the regionalization of systems relevant to bioterrorism preparedness. Future research should focus on the costs and benefits of regionalization of surveillance, inventory management and distribution systems, and information management, according to the release.

New Report Says Better Coordination of Resources Along Regional Lines is Essential to Bioterrorism Preparedness (news release, Rockville, Md: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, May 7, 2004) http://www.ahrq .gov/news/press/pr2004/bioregpr.htm (accessed 24 May 2004).

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