Health care organizations play a critical role in protecting the public’s health during emergencies. To ensure a comprehensive, statewide response to residents’ health needs in an emergency, the NH Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) established the Granite State Health Care Coalition to coordinate emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts across the health care sector.
As an implementing and founding partner to the Granite State Health Care Coalition, JSI applied our substantial subject matter expertise in the development of coalition preparedness and response plans, implementation of medical surge exercises, conduct of jurisdictional risk assessments (JRAs) and hazard vulnerability assessments (HVAs), and assessment of resource gaps and prioritization. Prior to the pandemic, JSI worked with our partners to successfully engage long-term care in the federally-required Coalition Surge Test, strengthening partnerships critical to the COVID-19 response. JSI-implemented JRAs and HVAs focused coalition partner attention on priorities including Crisis Standards of Care planning, engaging and assisting partners, particularly non-hospital partners, with CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule requirements, and exploring novel roles for these partners in emergencies. This work became all the more important with the advent of COVID-19.
The Granite State Health Care Coalition is a single, statewide coalition that includes and supports healthcare organizations such as hospitals and hospital-based health systems, emergency medical services, long-term care facilities, visiting nurses and home health, primary care, and specialty practices, and behavioral and substance use disorder providers, state and local emergency management and public health, dialysis centers, durable medical equipment providers officials.
We strive to build lasting relationships to produce better health outcomes for all.
