10.01.2018

MGH to Lead Partnership Developing Disaster Response System

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is just one of two hospitals nationwide to receive an important federal grant to develop a regional plan for delivering medical care during an emergency.

MGH’s grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Hospital Preparedness Program is to demonstrate how a Regional Disaster Health Response System could meet the needs of communities in need of immediate medical specialty care following a disaster.

With the $3 million grant, MGH will assemble a partnership group that will: build a statewide network of technical advisors from healthcare institutions to coordinate patient and resource movement during disasters and develop medical surge capacity; establish a 24/7/365 center that supports healthcare incident response; and develop general and specialty disaster medical response teams.

The partnership will also create expert advisory groups focusing on trauma, burn, radiological/nuclear hazards, mental health, HazMat – among many other areas that will need to be addressed during a mass-scale disaster.

What Massachusetts develops along with the other pilot project site at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha could be replicated across the nation. MGH and Nebraska Medicine were chosen from 19 national applicants for the grant.