The purpose of this FOA is to enhance the ability of local healthcare facilities and State entities to be able to safely transfer patients with confirmed or suspected high consequence infectious diseases between facilities.

HHS will award funding through this FOA as a sole cooperative agreement

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award to provide technical expertise and support for the development of inter-state and intra-state plans to enhance the ability of local healthcare facilities and State entities to be able to safely transfer patients with confirmed or suspected high consequence infectious diseases between facilities.

DHSP envisions this award as a collaborative process.

DHSP will award a maximum of one award through this FOA.

Project Outcomes • Using an evidence based process (where possible) and interdisciplinary subject matter expertise (where necessary), prepare a “State EMS High Consequence Infectious Disease Transport Plan Template”, • Develop exercises that can be used to evaluate a High Consequence Infectious Disease Transport, and • Provide an assessment of each state’s capacity and capabilities for the ground transportation of patients with high consequence infectious diseases.

Implementation The Applicant must address all activities and strategies listed below in their application.

Activity A:
Prepare a “State EMS High Consequence Infectious Disease Transport Plan Template”.

• Develop template for inter-facility and interstate transport plans for Ebola patients that consider ground transport times between facilities and from designated airports to the Regional Ebola and other special pathogen treatment center.

o Coordinate with public health and emergency management leaders and elected officials, such as state governors, to ensure permissible movement of patients between states.

There should be a clear, written understanding of how patients from all parts of the region will be transported to the Regional Ebola and other special pathogen treatment center and what will happen if the center is at capacity o Coordinate with EMS agencies; state EMS officials; state/jurisdiction assessment and treatment hospitals; and regional Ebola and other special pathogen treatment centers to determine the indications for ground transport of Ebola patients.

o Review laws and regulations within each state and jurisdiction in the region to identify and address barriers to patient transport.

o Review evidence based processes for best practices Activity B:
• Develop exercises that can be used to evaluate a High Consequence Infectious Disease Transport.

o Exercise scenarios must be challenging and realistic.

Scenarios should be designed to identify single points of failure that could mitigation could lead to improvements.

o A progression of exercises complexity from tabletop to full scale exercise should be a central feature of the exercise designs o Exercise objectives and evaluation criteria must be identified.

Activity C:
Provide an assessment of each state’s capacity and capabilities for the ground transportation of patients with high consequence infectious diseases.

Assessment should take into consideration availability of resources (personnel, equipment, vehicles, etc.) , state of applicable response plans, and results from exercises as a minimum.

Evaluation and Performance Measurement