In the second installment of Dr. Craig Vanderwagen's groundbreaking five-part series "Implementing the National Health Security Strategy,” the founding Assistant for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services focuses on the challenges in tracking patients before, during, and after mass-casualty incidents and events.
Patient tracking remains immensely important to resiliency, because the health and well-being of the population – both in the immediate aftermath and in the recovery phase of an event – contribute significantly to the ability of a community to rebound from a challenge and return to a more normal state of affairs. The importance of this element in preparedness is reflected in the strategic objectives of the National Health Security Strategy not only in the goals related to situational awareness and scalable health-delivery systems but also in the overarching vision of maintaining a healthy population.
In this essay, Dr. Vanderwagen explores the immediate medical needs of those persons directly affected by an event along with several other facets of patient tracking – including but not limited to: (a) the health status and requirements of the evacuated population; (b) the size and immediate needs of the population being housed in shelters; (c) the health status of those who remain in the area directly affected; and (d) the tracking of medical countermeasures from the point of origin to treatment.
The white paper can easily be downloaded at http://www.upp.com/whitepaper-registration.cfm.
______________________________ Craig Vanderwagen, M.D., is a Senior partner with Martin, Blanck, and Associates (MBA). His most recent assignment prior to joining MBA was the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2006-2009. He has special interests and experience in bio defense, domestic disaster preparedness and response, international humanitarian and disaster response, federal health delivery systems, innovative organization development and evaluation, and cross cultural health care.