Los Angeles County Hospital Preparedness Program - This application proposes short-term goals, objectives, and planned activities for 2024-2028 Project Period. summarizes the overall preparedness strategy for the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) in LA County. Los Angeles County, California, the most populous county in the United States, consists of 88 incorporated cities and approximately 136 unincorporated areas with a combined population of just under 10 million people. The County covers over 4,000 square miles and has 75 miles of coastline. It also has the world's fourth busiest airport, Los Angeles International Airport which is the second busiest in the U.S. behind only Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta. It also has the nation’s two main seaports, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, that serve as leading gateways for the regional economy and the entire country. Additionally, it is a major tourist attraction and has dozens of high-profile events that attract hundreds of thousands of people to various venues around the County throughout the year. There are approximately 96 acute care hospitals as well as hundreds of Community Health Centers, Dialysis Centers, Long Term Care Facilities, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, and EMS provider agencies. To support this complex County is a similarly complex and large healthcare system. There are 3 public health agencies that operate within the county, each with their own health codes, authorities, and programs. The Department of Health Services (DHS) is a separate department within the County structure and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency, which serves as the HPP Coordinator, is a division of DHS. The EMS Agency functions as the Medical and health Operational Area Coordinator and in this role is responsible for ensuring the development of medical and health disaster plans that address preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation functions for the medical and public health community. Priorities: The top jurisdictional strategic priorities for the 5-year period of performance are based on the requirements of the Notice of Funding Opportunity. This includes: • Assessment and risk mitigation (RISC tool implementation, supply chain assessment, downtime strategies) • Information sharing (includes a development of a Strategic Plan and readiness plan, and information plan. • Specialty care planning and coordination (cybersecurity plan, downtime procedure plans and training and exercise plan) • Incident response • Healthcare workforce support (mental health support, staffing shortages, disaster volunteer programs) • Resource management • Training and exercise and evaluation (based on assessments of cybersecurity and downtime procedures) • Continuity and recovery (business continuity workshops) • Organizational development (expand coalition partner membership, enhance engagement of non-hospital sectors) Los Angeles County is organized under a single Health Care Coalition. The work of the coalition is carried out through healthcare sector specific workgroups, topic-specific multidisciplinary workgroups and/or through the Disaster Resource Center (DRC) program. Although the DRC model allows for a centralized coordinated effort, it bears its challenges. The EMS Agency disaster program managers provide programmatic support to the healthcare coalition as well as administrative support. Currently, there is a staffing shortage in Los Angeles County EMS Agency’s Disaster Section that will cause limitations to the extent of engagement with healthcare sectors, extended timetables to complete activities, and activities completed with the potential for enhancement and expansion. On the same token, the staffing challenges at the facility level, including high attrition rates of Emergency Managers, and clinical staff shortages, impacts the level of familiarity with emergency operations, limits participation in preparedness activities, and inevitably difficulty meeting grant requirements.
