Governor Warner Announces Virginia Recognized as National Leader in Public Health Emergency Preparedness
Governor Warner Announces Virginia Recognized as National Leader in Public Health Emergency Preparedness
Trust for America's Health gives Virginia its highest score
Governor Mark R. Warner today announced the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) gave Virginia its highest score among all the states for state preparedness efforts in its third annual report evaluating the nation's preparedness efforts for major health emergencies. The report, called "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism," cast a critical eye on national and state emergency preparedness efforts since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Overall, federal response efforts received a D+ grade, while Virginia was recognized for the second year in a row with among the highest scores in the nation among state emergency preparedness programs.
"Virginia has again been recognized as a national leader for its commitment to preparing and protecting our citizens from public health emergencies," Governor Warner said. "Though preparedness cannot be evaluated in simple black-and-white terms, this report shows that Virginia is in a leadership role among the states in confronting the difficult and complicated challenges of emergency preparedness."
Virginia, South Carolina and Delaware tied for highest ratings this year with a score of 8 out of a possible 10 points. Points were issued for achievement in 10 key indicators of health emergency preparedness, such as capabilities to test for chemical and biological threats and hospital surge capacity to care for patients in a mass emergency. More than half of all states received a score of 5 or less.
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The TFAH grade of the federal government's performance was based on a survey of 20 leading public health experts, who evaluated 12 different aspects of health emergency preparedness. The data for the public health indicators were collected in 2005 from publicly available sources or public officials. The data for the hospital-related indicators are based on a summer of 2005 survey of more than 1,800 members of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), whose members are experts in infection prevention and serve as advocates for infectious disease issues in hospitals throughout the nation.
"We know that preparing Virginians for public health emergencies is an ongoing endeavor, and our efforts will continue to address potential disease outbreaks such as pandemic influenza, the specter of bioterrorism and natural disaster threats that have a potential to impact Virginia," said State Health Commissioner Robert. B. Stroube, M.D., M.P.H. "We are already developing methods to improve in the two areas in which Virginia did not receive the highest scores in this report, and we will continue to work closely with our public- and private-sector partners in public health emergency preparedness and response to make Virginia a safer place to live and work."
Trust for America's Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. For more information about the "Ready or Not?" report, visit the TFAH Web site at www.healthyamericans.org. Visit the Virginia Department of Health's Web site to learn more about its Emergency Preparedness and Response Program.
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Press_Policy/Releases/2005/Dec05/1206b.htm