Keystone Health Preparedness Digest
September 15, 2024
Volume 13, Issue 17
Lessons in Working…Short
What supply disruptions could drastically affect operations?
As we worked through the COVID-19 pandemic, most facilities were short on needed supplies to combat the growing threat. As a result, universally, different standards of care were enacted to combat the problem. However, when supply shortages affect only a portion of health care facilities, we don’t routinely see those sweeping changes to standards of care that assist with our daily operations.
Read the new blog post by Ryan Weaver, MBA, BSN, RN, CPPS, HAP manager, emergency management.
HAP’s Emergency Management team helps Pennsylvania's hospitals and health systems prepare for public health emergencies and serves as a national model for best practices. Learn more about HAPevolve's Emergency Preparedness Solutions.
HOT TOPICS
Louisiana coastal hospitals transfer patients to make room for any Hurricane Francine needs, LA Illuminator: Hospitals activated emergency plans and prepared for the worst.
National Preparedness News and Updates
COVID-19
U.S. COVID activity remains elevated as some indicators decline, CIDRAP: Though most indicators showed downward trends, deaths were up compared to the previous week.
Hospital caseload strain may have contributed to 1 in 5 COVID deaths, CIDRAP: The analysis yields insights for ongoing staff shortages at U.S. hospitals and underscores the importance of minimizing caseload surges during future public health crises.
New report: COVID more severe, longer-lasting than other respiratory diseases, CIDRAP: COVID-19 participants most often reported fatigue, muscle aches, headache, and loss of taste and/or smell, consistent with the more extensive systemic COVID-19 effects.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
H5N1 Avian Flu
H5N1 confirmed in 3 more California dairy herds, CIDRAP: The three farms were targeted for testing due to their connections with the first avian flu outbreak locations.
Officials await testing clues from Missouri H5 avian flu case as Michigan reports more affected cows, CIDRAP: CDC lab experts are working on sequencing to identify the neuraminidase and detail the genome, which could yield clues about the source.
Emerging Disease
CDC warns of Salmonella outbreak linked to eggs, CIDRAP: Of the 65 people sickened, 24 have required hospitalization.
California officials confirm local dengue case, CIDRAP: The case follows two local cases reported in 2023, one in Pasadena and the other in Long Beach.
Oropouche cases in the Americas near 10,000, CIDRAP: In a new development, retrospective testing in the Dominican Republic has identified Oropouche cases in samples from people who were negative for dengue.
Vietnam reports its first fatal variant H1N1 flu case, CIDRAP: The source of the woman's infection isn't known.
Mpox escalates in Africa as officials launch response plan, CIDRAP: In Burundi's worsening outbreak, kids younger than 15 are the most affected group, similar to the DRC.
Global cholera deaths rise sharply, CIDRAP: The analysis also found high levels of community deaths in some countries, which highlights serious gaps in treatment.
Confirmed polio case in Gaza leads to vaccine drive, CIDRAP: Chad, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan also recorded cases.
Recommended by LinkedIn
CYBERSECURITY AND PHYSICAL SECURITY
Cybersecurity
The latest CISA Vulnerability Bulletin provides a summary of new vulnerabilities that have been recorded by the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD) in the past week. In some cases, the vulnerabilities in the bulletin may not yet have been assigned CVSS scores. Please visit NVD for updated vulnerability entries, which include CVSS scores once they are available.
Free Cybersecurity Services and Tools: As part of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) continuing mission to reduce cybersecurity risk across U.S. critical infrastructure partners and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, CISA has compiled a list of free cybersecurity tools and services to help organizations further advance their security capabilities. This living repository includes cybersecurity services provided by CISA, widely used open-source tools, and free tools and services offered by private and public sector organizations across the cybersecurity community. Any reference to specific commercial products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply their endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by CISA.
Health Industry Cybersecurity Tactical Crisis Response Guide: This document is constructed by industry and government experts to help guide response activities.
Cybersecurity updates: Subscribe to the weekly Healthcare and Public Health Sector Cybersecurity Bulletin.
AI IN HEALTH CARE
C-suite surveyors: AI ‘continues to excite healthcare leaders,’ AI in Healthcare: AI and patient care are “top of mind” for healthcare executives in 2024. The pairing seems opportune, since the surveyed leaders see the burgeoning technology as a key tool for improving the perennial mission. This is one takeaway to be inferred from the latest annual “Top of Mind for Top Health Systems” survey conducted for the Center for Connected Medicine at UPMC in Pittsburgh. Produced in partnership with KLAS Research, the survey report shows 55 respondents participated. Some 93 percent of these were C-level or suite-adjacent executives. The remaining 7 percent were directors or managers. The report offers three observations with explanations.
1. AI continues to excite healthcare leaders. For the fourth year in a row, healthcare executives identified AI as the most exciting emerging technology for their sector, the authors note. AI was cited by 85% of respondents, suggesting widespread belief that “AI has significant potential to improve administration, operations, clinical care and other areas of healthcare.”
2. Health system leaders recognize recent improvements in AI models. Respondents named AI the technology showing the most improvement for the second year in a row, UPMC reports. Executives noted improvement in large language models and generative AI used to augment care delivery and efficiency.
3. Leaders believe that some common challenges—not least patient care, patient access and provider burnout—are best solved with technology. Ambient speech technology is one solution being used to address these kinds of problems, the authors point out. While many reported challenges have remained the same over the last year, they add, many organizations have “shifted or split their focus to operational challenges, including efficiency, profit margins and staffing
HEALTH SYSTEM PREPAREDNESS
Hospitals surpass pre-pandemic quality outcomes: AHA, Vizient, Modern Healthcare: Health systems have a lower risk of patient mortality, fewer hospital-acquired infections, and are performing more cancer screenings in 2024 than prior to the pandemic, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association and Vizient, a group purchasing and consulting organization.
Education
National Healthcare Coalition Preparedness Conference: The 2024 National Healthcare Coalition Preparedness Conference theme is Visions of Progress: Sustainable Strategies for Emergency Preparedness and Resilience. By learning from the local-level triumphs and challenges of America's health care coalitions, we can adapt these successes into long-term, dynamic solutions that will benefit fellow coalitions across the country. Although our coalitions are each unique and diverse, as a whole we have the same ultimate purpose—to improve the health and safety of the communities we serve. December 10–12, 2024, Orlando Florida. Registration is open.
Want to receive the KHPD in your inbox as soon as it comes out?
ITEMS OF INTEREST
New/Updated Resources from ASPR TRACIE
The latest issue of The ASPR Express highlights the following new and updated resources:
Risk Identification and Site Criticality (RISC) Toolkit is an objective, data-driven all-hazards risk assessment that can be used by public and private organizations within the Healthcare and Public Health Sector to inform emergency preparedness planning, risk management activities, and resource investments. The RISC Toolkit provides owners/operators in the HPH Sector with nationally recognized standards-based evaluation criteria in an easy-to-follow, guided format. It can be utilized by a wide variety of HPH stakeholders including but not limited to hospitals, long-term care facilities, community health centers, health care coalitions, and public health agencies. The RISC Toolkit contains three self-assessment modules. These allow users to identify external threats and internal hazards specific to their site by using objective national-level data; assess the vulnerability of their site based on industry standards and guidance; and evaluate the criticality of and consequences to their site in the event of an incident. The RISC Toolkit compares multiple facilities across systems, coalitions, and regions to identify dependencies and interdependencies in a consistent and repeatable method to help create a more resilient healthcare system.
Partnering with the Healthcare Supply Chain to Improve Disaster Response and Healthcare Coalition Supply Chain Integrity Self-Assessment Checklist: The health care supply chain is complex, supporting patient care on a daily basis by producing and delivering medications as well as products ranging from gloves and gowns, to diagnostics, to pharmaceuticals and biomedical equipment, to surgical supplies. During disasters or catastrophic events, the health care supply chain can experience distinct strains depending on the nature of the event and the impact on surrounding infrastructure. These resources provide an overview of the emergency planning and response considerations of health care supply chain owners, operators, and end users, as well as insights for health care coalitions working with health care supply chain partners on preparedness, response, and recovery. Checklist
EMTALA and Disasters: This fact sheet addresses several frequently asked questions regarding the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and disasters, and provides links to more resources. Note: This document is not intended to be used as regulatory guidance or in place of communications with or guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) who oversees EMTALA compliance. Fact sheet
HHS emPOWER Map NEW GIS REST Service Link—Partners must connect to the newly named REST service to consume the layer in their GIS System: Connect to the new link and GIS end points. In doing so, partners will be able to continue to gain population-level situational awareness of electricity-dependent populations in their own GIS applications. Please send any questions you may have to emPOWER@HHS.gov and GeoHEALTH@HHS.gov.
Visit our website at www.hapevolve.com!