The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) https://www.hlc.org and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy https:/healthpolicy.duke.edu along with private-sector nonprofits, government organizations, and stakeholders held discussions on how to better prepare for possible future pandemics.
A final report was released from the experts assessing the U.S response to COVID-19 and what is needed to be effective and safe in response to possible future pandemics and disasters. HLC held a briefing on February 4, 2021, to discuss the new report with recommendations including some temporary steps that have been taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic, which should be made permanent going forward.
Mary R. Grealy President, HLC opened the event by saying “Public emergencies will continue to happen and may become more frequent and severe. The next pandemic, natural disaster, or global crisis can be handled more effectively with better preparedness which requires government at all levels and the private sector to act now, while the lessons from COVID-19 are still being learned.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and immediate response has exposed vulnerabilities in the nation’s ability to handle a national scale crisis,” said Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, Founding Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. “A positive sign is that the organizations and the people in the healthcare space who typically are competitors showed willingness to work together for the good of all Americans.
The report’s recommendations, include:
- Launching a standing disaster preparedness group appointed by and working with the White House to include private sector expertise in production capacity, supply chain and distribution, data exchange, financing, and acute care delivery
- Modernizing the healthcare supply chain through digitalization, automation, and predictive analytics with standardized approaches for allocating resources based on need and equity to prevent bidding wars between states and healthcare providers
- Creating measures to ensure health equity by addressing disparities, identifying high-risk vulnerable populations, and directing resources accordingly
- Improving economic resilience with strategic incentives such as zero percent loans, federally guaranteed purchase commitments, and geographic diversification of production for critical medical products
- Building a 21st century public health early warning system that will use all available EHRs and public health data collection
- Passing legislation and regulatory reform to create rapid response capabilities in medical licensure portability, telehealth accessibility, and swift access to PPE stockpiles
- Making it easier and more secure for private industry and government to share data by updating anti-trust laws, enacting strong privacy protections, and ensuring broad access to the data
The authors of the report note that private-public partnerships have been essential during the ongoing response to COVID-19, and the recommendations in the report have buy-in from the private sector, nonprofits, and government stakeholders.
Go to https://www.hlc.org for the new report and recommendations.