[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 188 (Monday, September 29, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55968-55969]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-24489]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Cooperative Agreement to the Fund for the City of New York, on 
Behalf of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and 
the Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc.

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration, DHHS.

ACTION: Notice of award.

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Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance: 93.003.

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that a noncompetitive cooperative 
agreement award is being made to the Fund for the City of New York, on 
behalf of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and 
the Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc. The award is being made to 
support the efforts of the New York City Department of Health and 
Mental Hygiene to develop model approaches for addressing the special 
needs of high density metropolitan areas with high levels of risk for 
bioterrrorism attacks and other public health emergencies.
    This eighteen month agreement at a level of $5 million is being 
funded non-competitively because it is expected to provide useful 
information and guidance to this Department and to other health 
departments and levels of government regarding how to deal with threats 
and actual events in high density areas at high risk for attacks. One 
area of particular interest is developing and evaluating best practice 
guidelines for emergency preparedness in primary care settings. This 
includes developing effective models of clinic training. There has been 
concern expressed that the Federally Qualified Health Centers have not 
been sufficiently involved in regional planning for, and preparing to 
respond to, a bioterrorist event or other public health emergency. 
These clinics will likely serve a role with regard to triaging victims, 
as well as potentially offering mass prophylaxis. This effort will be 
designed to develop best practice guidelines and recommendations for 
primary care emergency management; develop an educational curriculum to 
disseminate best emergency practices to primary care centers; and test, 
evaluate and refine the guidelines, training curriculum, and template 
drills to share with primary care centers citywide.
    A second area of interest is preparation of terrorism preparedness 
exercises. It is important to identify

[[Page 55969]]

operational strengths and opportunities for improvement through 
simulated exercises. Practical exercises or drills should both 
reinforce knowledge and uncover opportunities for improvement in 
written disaster plans. Biological disaster exercises should be of 
sufficient intensity to challenge the management and response 
operations during the exercise, in a way similar to what would be 
expected during an actual biological terrorist event. The goal is to 
develop and disseminate a group of hospital-based, validated, Web-
accessible bioterrorism preparedness tabletop exercises.
    Because of its population density, experience with previous 
terrorist attacks, and subsequent efforts to build a response capacity, 
New York City is uniquely qualified to demonstrate model approaches 
that would inform regional or national preparedness efforts. A strong 
evaluation focus is built into the entire project to ensure that 
products are produced which will allow other metropolitan areas to 
replicate successful elements of the project.

    Authority: This award will be made pursuant to section 241 
(Evaluation of Programs) of the Public Health Service Act as well as 
section 319C of the Public Health Service Act (Hospital Preparedness 
for and Response to Bioterrorism and Other Public Health 
Emergencies), CFDA93.003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Millman, Director, Division of 
Information and Analysis, Office of Planning and Evaluation, Health 
Resources and Services Administration, Parklawn Building, Room 14-45, 
5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857, Phone 301-443-0368.

    Dated: August 14, 2003.
Elizabeth M. Duke,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 03-24489 Filed 9-26-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P