AMA-backed report pushing for increased health response capability and integration | 07.20.2007 | 07:24:39 | Views: 6155 | ID: July 20 '07: The American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association have released a new report (see link below to download the report), which calls for repairing "gaping holes in the U.S. disaster response system," the Government Health IT website reported. The report said that more could be done "in building overall response capacity," and it outlined four issues which need to be raised: public health's ability to detect disasters and respond is weakened because of a lack of integration between state and local services; health services are operating on margins so small that they are not able to handle surge capacity; a dearth of health standards to measure preparedness; no coordinated effort for a "shared policy platform" to help push health response reform. "Recent terrorist events and natural disasters underscore the real need to move beyond the present situation toward an emergency health system that is truley interoperable and integrated," the report wrote. Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the APHA told Government Health IT, "For too long, public health and medicine have responded to emergencies in separate silos." Dr. Benjamin's comments were echoed by the report, which stated that "Reliable, real-time networks must be available for use among hospitals, EMS agencies, public safety departments, emergency management offices and government agencies during disasters." The findings of the report were born out of discussions during the AMA/APHA Linkages Leadership Summit in 2005 and 2006.(Click below to download file) health-system-preparendess.pdf
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