National Study: RI Ready for Health Disaster
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
A new national report says Rhode Island is prepared for a health disaster—such as an epidemic or a bioterrorist incident—but not as ready as it could be.
The Ocean State achieved six out of 10 indicators of readiness, according to the eighth annual report, Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, which is produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Overall, states ranked much better than they had in previous years. But 34 states ranked above Rhode Island, scoring 7 or better.
A spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Health Department said the information in the report was accurate—but she disputed the conclusions the study’s authors drew.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFor example, one of the indicators measured how quickly the Health Department turned in “Action Reports” after a public health incident between 2007 and 2008.
Rhode Island didn’t get a score in that indicator because it was late with the reports. That’s because the state was busy dealing with three major public health crises around the same time, according to Annemarie Beardsworth, a spokeswoman for the Health Department. “We did eventually make the reports, but we were actually responding to incidents,” Beardsworth told GoLocalProv. “Sometimes real life trumps an administrative ideal.”
State has improved its defenses
Beardsworth maintains that Rhode Island is ready for the kinds of public health disasters the report says it should be. “I think that Rhode Island is ready,” Beardsworth said. “We are continuously working with our community partners, our health care providers.”
She said the state has made a number of improvements in recent years to bolster its public health system in the face of a disaster.
For example, she said the Health Department has boosted the staff in the Emergency Preparedness Program from two people in 2007 to ten in 2010. Also, in the past five years, she said the state has created a network of local hospitals that would be tasked with handling the distribution of antibiotics and vaccines in their region in the event of an outbreak or a terrorist incident.
While the state has made some significant strides, Beardsworth said there is still some room for improvement. She pointed to two perennial needs of the Health Department—increased staffing and more funding.
