Development of the Maryland Local Health Department

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Development of the Maryland Local Health
Department Preparedness Assessment Tool Lessons
Learned Nicole Brown, MPH Marsha Davenport, MD,
MPH Isaac Ajit, MD, MPH Iván A. Zapata, MS,
CHES Maryland Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene, Office of Preparedness Response
State of Maryland
Objective
Methods
Lessons Learned
The Maryland Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene (DHMH) conducts annual site visits of its
local health departments as a federal grant
requirement. The site visit tool is designed to
assess and document preparedness capacity and
capability and the status of preparedness
planning and activities at the local level.
The assessment tool was too lengthy to complete
by the public health preparedness planners in a
timely manner. Current design of the
assessment tool makes data analysis difficult.
All local health department staff are
considered public health responders by their
emergency preparedness planners.
The first Maryland specific site visit assessment
tool was developed by the Office of Public Health
Preparedness and introduced to the local health
departments in 2005. Prior to this time, the CDC
tool was used. The new site visit assessment tool
included elements to capture CDC performance
measures. In 2007 a team of subject matter
experts within the Office of Preparedness and
Response was created to review the existing
assessment tool, add priority areas based on
recently published CDC guidance, and expand
existing sections for greater comprehensiveness.
The final version was completed in April
2008. OPR regional coordinators distributed the
assessment tool electronically in a Word
Document. Health departments were required to
return the completed assessment tool to the
regional coordinators two weeks prior to their
scheduled site visit to allow OPR time to review
and comment. Site visits occurred between the
months of May and December 2008.
Background
Conclusions
The assessment tool proved useful for emergency
preparedness planners to monitor their progress
in meeting CDC performance measures and
benchmarks. Moreover, the development of the
assessment tool reflects the collaborative effort
between the State and local health department
public health preparedness staff.
As required by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative agreement, the
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Office of Preparedness and Response (OPR)
conducts annual site visits of all public health
emergency preparedness programs in each health
department to document progress in meeting
performance measures and benchmarks in
preparedness planning. The purpose of the site
visits is to assess and evaluate programmatic
activity in all jurisdictions. It is the goal of
OPR to gain a more comprehensive understanding
of each health departments public health
preparedness program and its activities. The
review period for the site visits spanned from
January 1, 2007 through February 29, 2008.
Results
All 24 county health departments completed the
assessment tool and participated in a site visit.
OPR local health planners coordinated with the
local health department emergency preparedness
planners to make arrangements for their site
visit. The average time to complete the site
visits was 2.5 hours. Examples of best practices
found among the health departments were
registries for vulnerable and special needs
populations, training and educational
opportunities offered to faith-based communities,
and requiring staff to complete the Columbia
University Roadmap to Preparedness.
Acknowledgements
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
- Office of Preparedness and Response
Staff Maryland Local Health Department Public
Health Emergency Preparedness Planners Maryland
Association of City and County Health Officials
CAPT Marsha Davenport completed this work as a
CDC-CEFO assignee to the Maryland Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene. CAPT Davenport is
currently assigned to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
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