Wednesday, March 12, 2025
3/12/2025
Minnesota’s PHEP efforts will be guided by the four-year strategic programmatic plan developed during BP1 1701-01. This will be updated in BP1 1901-01 and include an extensive review of the revised capabilities to identify work responsibilities at Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), local and tribal health department (LHD/THD), or if they are completed by other agencies in Minnesota. It also incorporates perspectives and priorities from other MDH divisions, the BP1Supp 2019 JRA, and LHD/THD partners. Domain 1: Community Resiliency. Relationships are key to response and recovery. Efforts will continue to strengthen and build partnerships at the state and local levels. LHDs/THDs will continue as key members of regional health care coalitions (HCCs). Jurisdictional risk assessments will be completed by LHD/THDs (per established cycle). Access and functional needs of at-risk population activities include assessments/surveys at the state and local levels and with human services partners. A process for requesting emPOWER data will be shared. MDH will explore, with tribal leaders, interest in developing a tribal behavioral health MRC. Domain 2: Incident Management. MDH will continue development of incident command team staff through exercises and role-specific training. MDH, LHDs, and THDs will participate in notification and activations drills. Elective LHDs duties focus on opportunities to test incident command systems and IAP development. An MDH EMAC plan will be written. MDH continuity of operations activities include documenting process, trigger points, and job action sheets for moving to alternate facilities. Domain 3: Information Management. MDH will offer two workshops for LHD/THD spokespeople and directors. An assessment of the MDH Public Information and Warning annex will be completed using elements in Capability 4. The MDH virtual joint information center (JIC) SharePoint site will add a working area for PIOs. The MDH Communications Office staff to improve their ability to develop messages for at-risk populations and exercise the message development process with subject matter experts. HAN LHD work focuses on reaching health care partners with critical, time-sensitive information. Domain 4: Medical Countermeasures. A full-scale statewide PHEP and HPP joint exercise using a medical countermeasures anthrax scenario will consume considerable time for MDH, LHDs, THDs, and HCCs. ORR activities continue to represent a major focus of activities. IMATS training will be offered to LHDs/THDs. Nonpharmaceutical interventions efforts include training for LHDs and THDs on isolation and quarantine, participating in an Ebola exercise with the CDC MSP Quarantine Station, and working with the CDC vaccine preventable disease program to model the impact of exclusion and social distancing. Domain 5: Surge Management. Fatality management activities will be focused on identifying culturally-specific fatality management practices and disseminating the information to partners. LHDs/THDs may select from activities to complete, test or retest plans for family assistance centers, family reunification centers, and/or mass care/sheltering. Domain 6: Biosurveillance. The Minnesota Public Health Laboratory will maintain their ability to test, ship and package, and communicate results with internal and external partners. This will include maintaining proficiencies, issuing challenge sets, exercising, and implementing a new LIMS. The Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Section will maintain their collaborations with Canada, their ability to respond 24/7 to disease outbreaks through staff training, and continue to develop written documentation of processes/protocols. A Biowatch Actionable Result detection TTX exercise with US Bank Stadium, FBI, law enforcement, first responders, and other key partners will be conducted.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).