Healthcare Preparedness Coalition

Pursuant to Section 943.0312, Florida Statutes, Florida created seven Regional Domestic Security Taskforces (RDSTF) who collectively support preparing for, preventing, protecting against, responding to, and recovering from a terrorism event. The Miami-Dade County Healthcare Preparedness Coalition (MDCHPC), formerly known as the Miami-Dade County Hospital Preparedness Consortium, is a part of Region VII of the Regional Domestic Security Taskforce (RDSTF) and serves as a forum of healthcare organizations and supporting agencies committed to mutual collaboration to address healthcare emergency preparedness and response capabilities.

The Miami-Dade County Healthcare Preparedness Coalition, formerly known as the Miami-Dade County Hospital Preparedness Consortium, is a multi-disciplinary group that was established in March 2006 to assist the county in articulating strategic priorities and overseeing the development and execution of preparedness foed on strengthening preparedness and response.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the Coalition is to provide coordinated effort in dealing with healthcare emergency preparedness and response capabilities of hospitals and community stakeholders in Miami-Dade County.

GOALS

To provide a forum for the healthcare community to interact with one another on a county level to:

• Promote emergency preparedness in healthcare settings.
• Coordinate and improve the delivery of healthcare emergency response services.
• Cultivate communication between county level organizations and community-wide emergency planning and response.

RESPONSIVE & INTERACTIVE

MDCHPC provides continuous information and training to healthcare organizations and coalitions to assist with their emergency preparedness initiatives. Our activities include a unique combination of coalition-building, training, exercises, disaster drills, and other opportunities for growth through the sharing of best practices. MDCHPC’s focus is to enhance and improve all hazards community preparedness activities by sharing expertise and coalition development sustainment strategies and engaging partners through risk assessment, hazard vulnerability analysis, training, and exercises.

ACTIVITIES

Our coalition's monthly meetings discuss performance and preparedness efforts including communications, risk assessment, situational awareness, structure, partnerships, multidisciplinary training and exercises, coordination for multi-agency response, and resources & assets.

MDCHPC offers a unique combination of best practice sharing, training and exercise need fulfillment, and overall healthcare emergency management support.

The coalition is thankful for its partners that provide training and exercises for our healthcare partners: Office of Emergency Management, Florida Department of Health, ESF8, Miami Dade Police Department, Miami Dade Fire Rescue, and our other community partners.

ABOUT US

Healthcare preparedness is a concern for hospitals and community stakeholders everywhere—Miami-Dade County is no exception. Our community depends on all response and healthcare agencies to be prepared to deal with all types of events that can affect our county. The MDCHPC not only acts as a liaison with county, regional, and state officials, but it also convenes all partners to prepare and plan for hurricanes, bioterrorism attacks, pandemic influenza, and other emergency events by articulating and advocating strategic priorities as they relate to disaster management. 

HEALTHCARE DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

Under the guidance of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) has been providing funding to Healthcare Coalitions across the nation to help strengthen and enhance Healthcare Preparedness Capabilities.  The MDCHPC has been awarded federal grant funding for a second year in a row and it is expected to enhance its capabilities-based planning through the continuous integration of critical partners.