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| PCDC’s NATIONAL SUMMIT ON PRIMARY CARE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS |  |
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PCDC’s NATIONAL SUMMIT ON PRIMARY CARE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS "This gathering was of the utmost importance to New York City and the entire country. Tragedies like 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina taught us that primary care providers play a critical role in ensuring that communities are not overwhelmed during any type of disaster."—Ronda Kotelchuck, Executive Director of the Primary Care Development Corporation.
On September 19, 2007, PCDC held a first-in-the-nation summit to address emergency preparedness and primary care. For the first time, experts in the emergency preparedness sector, primary care, hospitals and major health systems, academia, and city, state and national elected officials gathered together to discuss and learn from one another about how best to bolster primary care to prepare us in the event of a emergency; natural or manmade. Approximately 150 people attended from 10 states, and 8 primary care associations were represented.
Experts on emergency preparedness headlined three separate discussions in addition to multiple breakout groups throughout the day. Opening the summit, Dr. Jon Khrohmer (pictured above), the Department of Homeland Security's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner spoke of the critical importance of primary care in any disaster that cities across the country could face. Theresa Bischoff, CEO of the American Red Cross in Greater New York delivered the lunch plenary session discussing how to best forge partnerships among sectors to effectively handle emergencies. The final session of the day featured a dynamic panel focusing on the problems experienced in the primary care sector throughout New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The speakers shared their first-hand experience meeting the needs of their communities during and following the event and engaged in discussion with the audience regarding their lessons learned [View speakers and panel presentations]
Joining us at the summit were a broad range of policy experts, physicians and elected officials--including New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn providing closing remarks. "Primary Care is an essential centerpiece to our healthcare system," Quinn said. "In times of crisis, its role becomes all the more important. As we continue to work hard to ensure New York City is prepared for the worst, this summit is an important step forward in our effort to make certain that the primary care piece of emergency preparedness is fully addressed. I am hopeful that the discussion started here will continue in the weeks and months to follow and that we can develop a plan so that all primary care centers and our City are prepared." The Summit raised three important themes: 1. Increased access to additional resources for primary care providers is needed to create and strengthen their own emergency management programs—including education, training, experts in primary care emergency preparedness, and materials for planning and response. 2. Raising awareness of primary care as a resource for first responders to assist in helping communities respond to local or regional disasters is necessary. Further creation and understanding of the role of primary care providers is fundamental to this process—which should be created by the primary care provider and regional response planners. 3. Active integration of primary care providers in their community’s planning and response efforts is currently in its infancy and has to be strengthened. This includes working with local hospitals, fire, police, departments of health, EMS, and other community-based organizations (health care and non-health care related). Primary care providers should be integrated into community-wide exercises, represented at the local office of emergency management, and an ongoing part of community-based emergency response planning. SPONSORED BY
Funding for this conference was made possible [in part] by 1 R13 HS016593-01 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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