Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) will work with established State, Tribal, Regional, and local partners to strengthen core Office of Resilience and Health Security initiatives and create Statewide emergency response capability that can protect everyone in the State during incidents requiring public health responses of any severity. These efforts will be guided by meeting the program outputs described in the PHEP logic model, the 10 Response Readiness Framework program priorities in WA DOH and supporting our local and regional partners in implementing the 15 capability standards as identified by the CDC for the duration of the PHEP funding. In this effort, WA DOH as well as State agencies we support under the State of Washington Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (WA CEMP) and other entities in our jurisdictional authority and responsibility during response activations will be able to save lives and reduce morbidity during emergencies.
Through the implementation of the CDC models, priorities, strategies and activities, short and long term improvements and transformational strategies will be achieved through operational planning and response activities that strengthen community resilience, surveillance, epidemiological investigations, laboratory testing, countermeasures and mitigation activities, surge management for public health and health care services, information management targeting the public and partners, and coordination of system responses through effective implementation of incident management. The PHEP funding will help ensure WA DOH and our response partners in public health departments are prepared to prevent, detect, respond to, mitigate, and recover from a variety of public health threats.