Because natural and manmade disasters can occur at any time, individuals, communities, and governments must be prepared. RAND has developed guidelines for individual preparedness in response to terrorist attacks; evaluated, modeled, and enhanced preparedness policy options for government officials at all levels; and recommended actions that communities should take to prepare for bioterrorist attacks, pandemic flu outbreaks, and other large-scale emergencies.
Report
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response asked RAND to facilitate the development of a public health systems research agenda for emergency preparedness with a focus on both short- and long-term priorities.
Report
Discusses the role of public health agencies in emergency preparedness for and response to chemical and radiological incidents.
News Release
State and local health departments get mixed marks for efforts to convey information about the H1N1 virus to the public using their Web sites immediately after U.S. officials declared a public health emergency in April.
Journal Article
On Sunday, 26 April 2009, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency in response to the outbreak of H1N1 influenza (known as swine flu) in the United States. Through an analysis of state and local health department Web sites, we determined whether departments were able to provide online information to their constituents within twenty-four hours of the declaration. The overwhelming majority of state health departments, and more than half of health departments participating in the Cities Readiness Initiative--but only a quarter of smaller, local health departments--were successful in doing so.
Research Brief
This research highlight summarizes the findings of RAND's initial evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative and the program's impact on communities' readiness to conduct mass dispensing of medications and other medical supplies.
News Release
A federal program designed to help metropolitan public health agencies prepare to deliver essential medicines to the public after a large-scale bioterror attack or natural disease outbreak has succeeded in improving the level of readiness.
Journal Article
This study found little temporal relationship between the demand for ED resources and that for inpatient services. A multivariate modeling approach provided a more accurate forecast of ED demand and the demand for inpatient services.
Report
Analyzes the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, and derives lessons learned from the attack and from the Indian response.
Commentary
In his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to rebuild the Gulf Coast — one of the country's most wounded, yet economically strategic, regions.
To keep this laudable promise, he will need to make a sustained commitment not only to a national disaster recovery plan, but also a comprehensive economic development strategy for the Gulf Coast, writes Melissa Flournoy.
News Release
Non-fatal injuries to police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other public safety workers are common, but little is done to track these incidents in order to improve prevention efforts.
Multimedia
In a webinar given on November 19th 2008, researchers from the RAND Center for Public Health Preparedness provide guidance on applying quality improvement (QI) methods to public health emergency preparedness.
Report
A toolkit intended to help state and local health departments of all sizes incorporate quality improvement methods and promising strategies in six key domains into their current emergency preparedness activities.
Research Brief
Framing of a broad set of questions about how national preparedness can be meaningfully evaluated, this policy brief introduces an alternative way of thinking about measuring emergency preparedness.
Report
Decisionmakers today largely assess emergency preparedness and homeland security "in the rear view mirror," looking at performance in actual events and responding to perceived failures. While real-world experience is important, better ways to assess preparedness prospectively will lead to better choices as to how and where to strengthen it.
Report
The author recommends a capabilities-based, portfolio approach to terrorism prevention planning. Protective portfolios would combine preventative measures and mitigation and resiliency measures to deal with uncertainty in the terrorist threat.
Project
Public safety officers have much higher incidence and cost of injuries that result in disability retirement than other public employees. RAND research helped the Commission on Health and Safety Workers' Compensation and the California legislature in their efforts to provide adequate workers' compensation and disability benefits.
Report
This report presents recommended standards for points of dispensing (or PODs), locations where the public would receive life-saving antibiotics or other medical countermeasures during a large-scale public health emergency.
Multimedia
Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. Lynn E. Davis examines a scenario-driven approach that provides a rigorous way to identify actions-linked specifically to terrorist attacks-individuals can take to protect their health and safety.
Journal Article
This study confirms the common view that demand for ED services follows seasonal and weekly patterns. Results suggest that existing forecast methods—multiple linear regression based on calendar variables—are a reasonable approach to forecasting daily patient volume.
Journal Article
Finds variability in advance directive documentation for nursing home patients on transfer to the emergency department, and finds that emergency clinicians experience substantial difficulty in reliably obtaining information about advance directives.
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