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RODERICK L. BREMBY, SECRETARY |
K A N S A S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT |
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, GOVERNOR |
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Governor Sebelius announces $4 million to hospitals, health care providers from Kansas Department of Health and Environment
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) will award approximately $4 million to Kansas hospitals and other health care providers to enhance emergency preparedness and terrorism response. The funding is provided to KDHE through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program grant and is administered for KDHE by the Kansas Hospital Education and Research Foundation (KHERF), a subsidiary of the Kansas Hospital Association (KHA).
"It is critical our hospitals and health care providers are well prepared should emergencies or terrorist activities hit our state," said Governor Sebelius. "We count on our hospitals and health care providers in every community in Kansas and I am extremely pleased this money is going to help enhance their preparedness and preparation."
Each of the state's community hospitals is eligible to receive $22,000 for personal protective equipment, decontamination facilities, communications equipment, pharmaceutical supplies, and other needed equipment and training. In addition, selected facilities will be provided funds to upgrade their laboratories to safely conduct "rule out" testing for biological agents likely to be utilized in a bioterrorism incident.
In counties without an acute care hospital, monies will be provided to other health care providers in the area to develop and implement plans to enhance preparedness for terrorism and other emergencies. Monies will also be used to enhance trauma systems, poison control, emergency medical services, and training for clinicians and non-clinicians around the state.
These monies are in the third year of terrorism response funding under the program administered by HRSA. Last year's grant awards, in addition to funding hospitals, were used to develop and implement six regionally defined hospital terrorism response plans. Hospitals, local public health departments and ambulance services, public safety representatives and emergency management officials were involved in regional plan development. In addition to regional planning, hospitals were able to develop regional caches of medicines and equipment. Isolation facilities were purchased for community hospitals that did not have this capacity previously.
The latest round of grants are administered through KHERF on behalf of KDHE. KDHE and the Kansas Hospital Association hosted conference calls and attended regional meetings around the state earlier this year to inform health care providers of the availability of the federal grand funds and to provide guidance on how to best utilize these monies to prepare for emergency events.