Grants offered for hospital emergency care

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced the availability of $25 million grants for emergency care.

HHS says the grant money will be available to hospitals and other healthcare facilities in a competitive emergency care grant program. Officials say the grant is focused on the preparedness of hospitals for community and public health emergencies, hospital surge capacity and the system capacity of emergency care.

“We are asking the healthcare community to propose innovative approaches to public health emergencies,” HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response RADM W. Craig Vanderwagen, M.D., said in a statement. “By identifying new projects that could be replicated across the country, we are looking to strengthen the overall resiliency of our nation’s emergency care.”

Officials say the enhancement of the U.S.'s ability to respond to public health emergencies requires improvements in emergency care.

The program will award grants for projects that integrate public and private emergency care system capabilities with public health and other first-responder systems. Additionally, the integration will require periodic evaluation by use of drills and exercises to get the public and private sector involved.

The grants will also be awarded to hospitals for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency care systems, among other facets.