Public Health Practices

In response to Cities Readiness Initiative requirements, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment (JCDHE), in conjunction with Kansas City metro partners, developed an online screening and voucher system for Points of Dispensing (PODs). The system enables one client to move through a POD in 35 seconds, reduces responder time and effort, and engages the public more fully in emergency preparedness.

Concerned about the inability of large numbers of uninsured people to access care early in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, an Oregon regional preparedness organization partnered with public health, care providers, and community organizations to create a flu-related care delivery system exclusively for uninsured and low-income people.

Oregon’s "Taking H1N1 Vaccination to Vulnerable Populations" pilot project utilized nontraditional vaccinators, specifically paramedics affiliated with local ambulance services, as a strategy to improve influenza vaccination rates among homebound seniors and people with disabilities. Collaboration between local health departments, community-based organizations, and emergency medical service agencies provided flu vaccine to homebound individuals during a five-county pilot project in Oregon.

Stakeholders formed partnerships, created tools, and expanded the Seattle region's capacity to ensure continuity of care for opioid treatment patients during a disaster.

Recent tragedies such as the Haiti earthquake, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and September 11th have demonstrated that minorities suffer disproportionately during all stages of a disaster. Acknowledging that culturally and linguistically competent care can help mitigate health disparities, the U.S.

Tennessee worked with pharmacies to ensure that people displaced by flooding had necessary medications.

Competing healthcare systems in South Dakota worked together for several months to offer free H1N1 vaccine to the public. Avera Health and Sanford Health are two large healthcare systems that serve rural eastern South Dakota, while Rapid City Regional Health serves the western part of the state. South Dakota only has one local health department in Sioux Falls, so less populated areas rely on the services of the state health department's community health nurses.

In October of 2009, the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) noticed a disproportionate number of H1N1 hospitalizations and deaths among American Indians (AI). Similar findings in other states led to the formation of a multidisciplinary workgroup that compiled surveillance data from 12 states. The preliminary results indicated that AI were twice as likely as the general population to be hospitalized with severe complications or die from novel H1N1 flu.