About Healthcare and Hospital Preparedness
The Arkansas Department of Health’s Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) enables healthcare systems to save lives during emergencies that exceed the day-to-day capacity of health and emergency response systems. This program helps to prepare the healthcare system by incentivizing diverse and competitive healthcare organizations to work together. Planning efforts focus on operationalizing the Health Care Coalitions (HCCs) for effective response by optimizing membership as well as population and geographic coverage.
HCCs serve as multiagency coordination groups that support and integrate with ESF-8 activities in the context of incident command system (ICS) responsibilities. HCCs coordinate activities among healthcare organizations and other stakeholders in their communities; these entities comprise HCC members that actively contribute to HCC strategic planning, operational planning and response, information sharing, and resource coordination and management. As a result, HCCs collaborate to ensure each member has what it needs to respond to emergencies and planned events, including medical equipment and supplies, real-time information, communication systems, and educated and trained healthcare personnel.
The value of participation in an HCC is not limited to emergency preparedness and response. Day-to-day benefits may include:
- Reducing risk
- Sharing leading practices
- Enhancing purchasing power (e.g., bulk purchasing agreements)
- Accessing clinical and non-clinical expertise
- Developing interdependent relationships
