The challenge is the resiliency of hospitals. The approach is to develop materials and to demonstrate the effectiveness of resilience efforts. Once that is done, the next steps are development and implementation.
Excerpts:
“Healthcare and public health leaders are responsible to their boards of directors and patients for, among many other things, the safety and security of their critical infrastructure. Standard operating plans for hospitals requires evacuation when the power is out for an extended period and backup generators cannot be refueled. A shortcoming of this policy is that long-term regional or nationwide outages would require shutting down hospitals when they are needed most.”
“The Department of Defense has pioneered this approach at select military bases. The project will be implemented in three hospitals separately in the Western, Midwestern, and Eastern parts of the United States.”
“The current timeline intends for demonstrated effectiveness by July 2017. “