An annual report that ranks each state’s public health emergency preparedness capabilities has found underlying gaps in the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies, according to Richard Hamburg, deputy director of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit organization.
The nonprofit and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation annually score each state based on 10 health emergency preparedness capabilities. The report, Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health From Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism, released Tuesday, Dec. 15, might be of increasing importance to states as the H1N1 outbreak continues to test their preparedness and business continuity measures.
“The 2009 H1N1 outbreak is the latest in a series of reminders from Sept. 11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks to Hurricane Katrina, that the nation’s public health systems need to always be ready to respond to a major health crisis,” Hamburg said. “We conduct this report each year because we believe that the public deserves to know how prepared their states and communities are to respond to public health emergencies.”
None of the states received a perfect score, or met 10 out of 10 preparedness indicators, but eight tied with a score of nine: Arkansas, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Vermont. Two-thirds of states received a score of seven or less, and Montana came in last with a score of three.
Hamburg said the indicators are based on relevance to preparedness and whether the data is publicly available. Some of the preparedness capabilities the states’ scores were based on included:
- whether they purchased 50 percent or more of their federally subsidized anti-virals;
- if the state health department submitted data weekly to the National Hospital Available Beds for Emergencies and Disasters (HAvBED) System on available hospital beds for at least 50 percent of its facilities;
- if the state has a disease tracking system to collect and monitor data electronically via the Internet; and
- if the state public health lab reported having enough capacity to work five, 12-hour days for six to eight weeks in response to an infectious disease outbreak.
“Some key gaps we found that could have made a significant difference to the H1N1 response included: a lack of real-time, coordinated disease surveillance in many cases, and laboratory testing; limited hospital surge capacity; and a shrinking public health work force,” Hamburg said.
More than half of the states cut their public health funding between fiscal 2008 and 2009, and federal preparedness funds were cut by more than 25 percent since fiscal 2005, according to Hamburg. “This obviously made responding to a pandemic harder, it also put improvements that the country had made to improve preparedness since Sept. 11, 2001, at risk,” he said.
Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for National Preparedness at Columbia University, said one of the report’s most important aspects if that it stresses the importance of accountability and transparency. He said the public and government officials must understand how tax dollars are being used and how well protected communities are from health threats.
Score Breakdown
Here’s a listing of the states’ scores. Refer to the report for a detailed breakdown.
States that received a score of nine:
Arkansas
Delaware
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Texas
Vermont
States that received a score of eight:
Alabama
California
Colorado
Washington, D.C.
Kentucky
Michigan
Mississippi
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Wisconsin
States that received a score of seven:
Hawaii
Indiana
Iowa
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
New Hampshire
South Dakota
Tennessee
Virginia
States that received a score of six:
Connecticut
Georgia
Illinois
Kansas
Louisiana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
Rhode Island
Utah
West Virginia
Wyoming
States that received a score of five:
Alaska
Arizona
Florida
Idaho
Maine
Washington
States that received a score of three:
Montana
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