ASPR TRACIE Express: COVID-19 Resources (December Update #3)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Public Health Emergency

COVID-19 Resources: December Update #3

Season’s Greetings, ASPR TRACIE stakeholders! Thank you for all that you do to serve your communities. This issue of The Express highlights the following new/updated resources:

Please continue to access our Novel Coronavirus Resources Page, COVID-19 Patient Surge and Scarce Resource Allocation page, and Hospital Operations Toolkit for COVID-19. We encourage you to monitor the National Institutes of Health Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Treatment Guidelines and CDC’s Coronavirus webpage, and reach out if you need technical assistance (TA).

ASPR TRACIE Records One Millionth Visitor!

This week marks a momentous occasion in ASPR TRACIE’s history; we recorded our one millionth website visitor. Thank you for being part of our story; we look forward to continued collaboration in the new year.

New: Legal Considerations during COVID-19

James Hodge, director of the Western Region Office of the Network for Public Health Law, shares legal information specific to emergency declarations, emergency powers and limitations, crisis standards of care, and liability protections in this brief presentation. Access the rest of the Healthcare Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic speaker series for related information.

New: Crisis Standards of Care and COVID-19: Webinar Q and A

This document includes responses to questions received during the webinar, where speakers discussed clinical consultation versus triage support, systems-level information sharing, coalition-level coordination activities, and legal considerations to help with planning efforts. Access the set of resources referenced during the webinar and our COVID-19 Crisis Standards of Care Resource Collection for more information.

New: COVID-19 Vaccine Planning and Considerations

This TA response includes links to resources related to the approval, allocation, distribution, and administration of vaccines to prevent COVID-19.

New: HHS emPOWER Program Platform

ASPR’s emPOWER Program officially launched the HHS emPOWER Program Platform, a new mobile-ready technical assistance platform that provides public health, health care, and emergency management organizations, first responders, power companies, and many other partners with emPOWER data, tools, training, and informational resources to help them anticipate, plan for, and respond to incidents, emergencies, and disasters in their communities. The platform was developed in response to partner requests and provides readily meaningful, consumable, and actionable information and resources in a centralized location. Anyone can now rapidly access, adopt, download, and operationalize emPOWER tools, resources, and HHS emPOWER Map de-identified data to help protect the health of electricity- and health care-dependent at-risk populations living independently in communities across our nation. ASPR posted a blog and will continue to use social media and stakeholder engagement to educate stakeholders on the availability and uses of the new tool.

New: Patient Surge Management Resources (Webinar)

The speakers in this webinar (hosted by the COVID-19 Healthcare Resilience Working Group) provide an overview of the "Surge Roadmap" and related COVID-19 patient management strategies.

COVID-19 Clinical Rounds Peer-to-Peer Virtual Communities of Practice are a collaborative effort between ASPR, the National Emerging Special Pathogen Training and Education Center (NETEC), and Project ECHO. These interactive virtual learning sessions aim to create a peer-to-peer learning network where clinicians from the U.S. and abroad who have experience treating patients with COVID-19 share their challenges and successes; a generous amount of time for participant Q & A is also provided. These webinar topics are covered every week:

EMS: Patient Care and Operations (Mondays, 12:00-1:00 PM ET)
Critical Care: Lifesaving Treatment and Clinical Operations (Tuesdays, 12:00-1:00 PM ET)
Emergency Department: Patient Care and Clinical Operations (Thursdays, 12:00-1:00 PM ET)

Access previous webinars and sign up today to receive information on upcoming webinars.

The Healthcare & Public Health Sector Partnership led by ASPR’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection is actively engaged in responding to COVID-19. Register here to receive regular response bulletins.