The Need

Emergencies can disrupt care provided to health center patients by significantly increasing demand for services or severely decreasing or devastating current operations. An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) for a wide range of public health emergencies, such as Pandemic Influenza outbreak, is essential for minimizing the disruption of patient services, assuring the health center’s financial and organizational well-being and linking the health center to the local community response.

Our Actions

To build the capacity of Maine FQHCs to develop an internal all hazards emergency preparedness plan and to integrate the FQHCs into their community, county, regional and state public health emergency preparedness planning efforts, the Maine Primary Care Association joined with the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness of the Maine Center for Disease Control, Department of Health and Human Services.

As a lead partner, Maine Primary Care Association’s Emergency Preparedness (EP) Initiative provides the preparation, tools and agency connections Maine Health Centers need to respond in a crisis, including:

• Providing technical assistance related to public health preparedness and response to Maine Community Health Centers.
• Providing leadership and support for the policies, plans and strategies developed by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response.
• Providing local public health and community expertise and technical assistance to statewide and county pandemic influenza planning and response efforts, assuring coordination with Maine CDC, emergency management, Regional Resource Centers and other hospitals and healthcare system activities.
• Serving on county leadership teams to facilitate the development of county pandemic influenza response plans, in addition to serving on the Maine County Pandemic Influenza Planning Steering Committee at the state level.

Outcomes & Program Achievements

Maine Primary Care Association is fostering relationships at the local/county level between community health centers and their medical/emergency response partners, to achieve specific public health functions, such as Pandemic Influenza Planning and Response. Currently, twenty-one health center sites are participating in Pandemic Influenza response planning and will soon be expanding their efforts to include Emergency Operations Planning for all hazards. These critical partnerships will ensure awareness of Maine’s community health center and their involvement in emergency preparedness planning at the local, county, regional and state level.

As a result of the ongoing emergency preparedness efforts by Maine Primary Care Association and our community health centers, Maine’s CHC's have:

• Expanded the overall level of emergency preparedness to support patients and the community during a public health disaster, ensuring a “Stronger Community of Preparedness”.
• Engaged in a two-fold process to ensure that they have an increased ability to respond to public health medical emergencies at their facilities and in their communities.
• Increased the number of patients who will have support during a pandemic influenza outbreak and/or public health disaster.
• Educated health center patients on personal preparedness to ensure that patients are better prepared during a public health emergency.

For more information about the Emergency Preparedness initiatives, trainings, online resources and how your community health center can help you prepare before a disaster or public health emergency strikes, contact Caitlin Hager, Director of Emergency Preparedness, 207-621-0677, ext. 217 or emailchager@mepca.org.

Links and Resources

The following web resources and links are listed below to provide you with additional information. If you need additional assistance, email PREPARE@mepca.org.

Pandemic Influenza:

www.maineflu.gov – Maine’s Pandemic Influenza website
www.pandemicflu.gov – United States Pandemic Influenza website
www.cmrrc.org – Central Maine Regional Resource Center
www.smrrc.org – Southern Maine Regional Resource Center
www.nemrcc.org – Northeast Maine Regional Resource Center
www.who.int/ - World Health Organization (WHO)
www.toucaned.com – Pandemic Influenza School Educational Materials

Emergency Preparedness Planning/Resources:

www.maine.gov/ - Maine Emergency Management Agency and Local Emergency Management
www.maine.gov/ - Office of Public health Emergency Preparedness
www.hsph.harvard.edu/ - Harvard School of Public Health Emergency Preparedness
www.yalenewhavenhealth.org/ - Yale New Haven Health, Center for emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response:
www.ready.gov – U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Ready America, Ready Business and Ready Kids!
www.redcross.org – Get Prepared! American Red Cross Emergency Preparedness and Response Information