Overview of 2011 Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement Application Process
Prepared for Local Health Concurrence Call
May 27, 2011
Overview
While it is evident that public health departments have made significant progress in preparing for emergencies, CDC’s new five-year PHEP cooperative agreement seeks to advance public health preparedness by:
■ Establishing a prioritized and consistent set of public health preparedness capabilities,
■ Encouraging public health departments to measure their ability to achieve the public health preparedness capabilities and report how PHEP funds are used to achieve these capabilities,
■ Addressing lessons learned during the recent H1N1 influenza pandemic response regarding the administrative preparedness necessary at the state and local levels for effective response as well as provide an improved mechanism for awarding response funding,
■ Accelerating a public health emergency response funding by including a second funding authority provision for contingent emergency response funding.
■ Funding a limited number of higher population metropolitan statistical areas to develop all-hazards public health risk reduction strategies, and
§ Quantifying the return on investment of public funds used for preparedness.
Capabilities-based Approach
To assist state and local public health departments in their strategic planning, CDC has developed Public Health Preparedness Capabilities: National Standards for State and Local Planning (Capabilities) which identify 15 capabilities[1] to serve as national public health preparedness standards. The Capabilities are intended by CDC to provide a guide that PHEP awardees can use to better organize their work, plan their priorities, and decide which capabilities they have the resources to build or sustain.
In its guidance, CDC strongly recommends that awardees prioritize the order of the capabilities in which they intend to invest based upon: 1) their jurisdictional risk assessments (as described in the Community Preparedness capability), 2) an assessment of current capabilities and gaps using CDC’s Public Health Preparedness Capabilities: National Standards for State and Local Planning, and 3) CDC’s recommended tiered strategy for capabilities:
Tier 1 Capabilities:
- Public Health Laboratory Testing
- Public Health Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation
- Community Preparedness
- Medical Countermeasure Dispensing
- Medical Materiel Management and Distribution
- Responder Safety and Health
- Emergency Operations Coordination
- Emergency Public Information and Warning
- Information Sharing
Tier 2 Capabilities:
- Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention
- Medical Surge
- Volunteer Management
- Community Recovery
- Fatality Management
- Mass Care
Administrative Preparedness, Risk-Based Funding, and Response Funding
In addition to a capabilities-based approach to preparedness, the 2011-2016 PHEP cooperative agreement includes three specific initiatives – two of which are designed to address lessons learned from the recent H1N1 influenza pandemic response:
1. Enhancing administrative preparedness at the state, local, and territorial levels to assure jurisdictions have administrative procedures that enhance response and reduce administrative barriers to effective response;
2. Providing risk-based funding for select jurisdictions to promote the accelerated development of risk reduction strategies that mitigate the public health risks associated with higher population areas; and
- Providing a mechanism to award contingent supplemental emergency response funding in the event of a future pandemic or an all-hazards public health emergency in one or more jurisdictions.
Annual Requirements
Following is a summary of the PHEP cooperative agreement’s annual program requirements.
1. Submit all required PHEP funding application components, including project narratives, work plans, and budgets as outlined in Section IV, with an emphasis on short-term (BP1 – August 10, 2011 – August 9, 2012) and long-term (BP 2-5) plans to address the Capabilities, and complete and report on activities as described in the application work plans.
2. Include the following responses to the following as part of their funding applications:
• Local Health Department and Tribal Concurrence
• Administrative preparedness strategies.
3. Describe the activities they plan to conduct to comply with the following requirements.
• Comply with Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) guidelines and describe coordination with state Hospital Preparedness Program to implement ESAR-VHP guidelines.
• Engage the State Office for Aging in addressing the emergency preparedness, response, and recovery needs of the elderly.
• Solicit public comment on emergency preparedness plans and their implementation, including the establishment of an advisory committee or similar mechanism to ensure ongoing public comment.
• Meet National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliance requirements.
• Address the public health and medical needs of at-risk individuals in the event of a public health emergency.
• Work with the Hospital Preparedness Program to inform and educate hospitals in the jurisdiction on their role in public health emergency preparedness and response.
• Utilize Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) or other mutual aid agreements for medical and public health mutual aid.
• Assure compliance with all federal grant and PGO requirements and reporting obligations including progress reports, benchmarks, performance measures, program and financial data. Submit pandemic influenza plans. (See Evidence-based Benchmarks and Objective Standards and Pandemic Influenza Plans.)
• Submit an independent audit report every two years to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse within 30 days of receipt of the report.
• Have in place fiscal and programmatic systems to document accountability and improvement.
• Conduct at least one preparedness exercise annually, developed in accordance with Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) standards.
• Provide CDC with situational awareness data generated through interoperable networks of electronic data systems. (See Information Sharing capability.)
• Comply with Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) guidelines
• Continue Level 1 chemical laboratory surge capacity activities
• Develop risk-based funding activities (See Section IV, Project Narrative.)
Beginning in August 2011, PHEP awardees will report on a range of capability-based performance measures. While awardees will not have to report on all performance measures every year, they will be required to collect and report select performance measure data annually to meet federally required reporting mandates (e.g., HHS Priority Goal), and other programmatic reporting requirementswithin the following public health preparedness capabilities:
■ Community Preparedness (measures under development for implementation in August 2011)
■ Emergency Operations Coordination
■ Medical Countermeasures Dispensing
■ Medical Materiel Management and Distribution
■ Public Health Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation
■ Public Health Laboratory Testing
2011 Application Components
DPH must develop and submit the following components through Grants.gov by June 17, 2011.
Project Abstract
A project abstract of 2 pages or less must be submitted to provide a high-level summary of the proposed activity suitable for dissemination to the public. It should be a self-contained description of the project; contain a statement of objectives and methods to be employed; and be understandable to a technically literate lay reader
Project Narrative
A project narrative of 20 pages or less, single-spaced, to address activities to be conducted over the entire project period (2011-2016). The narrative should summarize the overall preparedness strategy for the five-year project period, as well as specific plans for capabilities to be addressed during Budget Period 1. In addition, the project narrative should briefly address challenges, barriers, and plans for addressing these issues.
Additional elements for the project narrative are:
1. Administrative preparedness strategies:
• Budget preparedness: describe administrative processes and approaches to receive and use emergency funds to respond to emergency situations in a timely manner, referencing AARs and IPs from H1N1 responses.
• Legal preparedness: describe legal barriers to effective public health preparedness and response and actions taken or planned to address these challenges, including but not limited to:
- Ensuring a legal framework for information sharing (including sharing of information with the FBI);
- Authority to accept and dispense pharmaceuticals issued under an emergency use authorization (EUA); and
- Legal liability of volunteers
2. Risk-based funding strategies for the Quincy-Boston-NH MSA that are linked to the Community Preparedness capability, and provide funding support to MSA partners as well as other community partners that may be critical to the success of the project.
Work Plan
In addition to the project narrative, a work plan must be submitted, including the following elements:
1. Capabilities plan: describe current and planned activities to achieve each function within a capability. All functions within each of the 15 capabilities must be addressed in the capabilities plan.
2. Local and tribal contracts plan: describe any contracts with local or tribal health departments within their jurisdictions and the capabilities to be addressed in the contracts.
3. Demonstration plan: provide a detailed description of the functions and capabilities to be demonstrated during Budget Period 1, through either routine public health activity; a planned event; a real incident; or an exercise.
4. Program management plan: provide information about cross-cutting and general program management activities planned for Budget Period 1 that are not specific to a capability, such as program administration and evaluation. Categories include Cross-cutting Personnel, Cross-cutting Resources, and Cross-cutting Projects.
Budget
The completed application must:
• Link budget allocations with one or more work plan components to enable costs to be allocated to capabilities or program management activities.
• Provide a detailed line item 12-month budget and justification of the funding amount requested to support program activities for Budget Period 1
• Provide detailed information regarding all newly requested contracts as well as for revisions in scope or budget for any existing contracts
2011 PHEP Overview 5.27.11 Page 1 of 6
[1] See Attachment A, which includes the 15 Capability definitions and associated functions.