More About SRDRS

Funded by the Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (HHS ASPR), the Southern Regional Disaster Response System’s (SRDRS) mission is to complement existing preparedness and response frameworks and the partnerships represented by the Health Care Coalitions.  

The mission is accomplished by integrating health care systems’ clinical and operational expertise into existing preparedness and response structures at the local, state, and regional levels across HHS Region 4.  

Broadly, the SRDRS aims to:

  1. augment horizontal and vertical integration of key stakeholders by championing public-private partnerships and aligning preparedness and response plans, policies, and procedures,
  2. improve bidirectional communication and situational awareness of the medical needs and issues of a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) response between health care organizations and government partners, and
  3. facilitate greater access to highly specialized clinical expertise and capabilities to improve medical surge capacity.  

To fulfill our aim, four signature initiatives have been identified for awarded Year 1. SRDRS is working to develop a medical operations coordination center by building on existing relationships and infrastructure, centered in the existing Georgia Coordinating Center. The MOCC includes tracking out-of-hospital patient movement and improving the visibility of health system capabilities and capacities by enhancing an existing health systems dashboard currently managed by the Georgia Department of Public Health. SRDRS plans to expand health systems’ use of telemedicine systems, including Tele-Critical Care, Tele-Emergency Medicine, Tele-EMS, and teleconsultation services offered by the regional poison centers. In turn, SRDRS will improve access to highly specialized clinical expertise in trauma, burns, and CBRNE mass casualty management. Lastly, SRDRS will review gap analyses for existing health care system preparedness and response structures to serve as the impetus for designing, conducting, and evaluating discussion and operations-based exercises.   

SRDRS will build on the successful collaboration of the Health Care Coalitions in Georgia and the HHS Region 4 states. With the initial introducing SRDRS and creating the SRDRS infrastructure in Georgia, SRDRS intends to expand into the other regional states through thoughtful integration with the Region 4 Poison Centers and a coalition of Region 4 Academic Healthcare Systems.