Ohio Department of Health Using Partnerships to Improve Public Health Data and Emergency Preparedness

September 29, 2024 | Margaux Haviland

In a public health emergency, it’s crucial to quickly and strategically deploy supplies such as personal protective equipment and medical countermeasures (MCM). This requires coordinated efforts among local, state, and federal partners to assess and address community needs. Timely access to actionable data about MCMs and other essential public health supplies is vital for this process. State health agencies need up-to-date information on available public health supplies to make informed decisions and respond effectively to evolving situations.

In order to explore opportunities to improve data sharing for public health response, in March 2024 ASTHO, with support from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and HHS Coordination Operations and Response Element, selected three state health agencies—Ohio, Massachusetts, and Washington—to identify and pilot scalable solutions for enabling bidirectional information sharing regarding ASPR-deployed assets across all levels of public health.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) proposed a highly collaborative approach to their data readiness proposal that encompassed ongoing strategic planning, which included MCM plan revisions, broadening coalitions, data modernization through standardizing systems, and last-mile delivery using equity-based allocations.

Incorporating Local Perspectives

As a home rule state, where public health authority is decentralized, the ODH team worked to ensure that local health department perspectives were included in the ODH data readiness project work. The ODH project team collaborated with the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners (AOHC) as well as Ohio’s seven regional healthcare coordinators to solicit feedback on barriers to sharing MCM inventory data, challenges with data reporting, and operational changes that could improve bidirectional MCM data sharing.

ODH engaged directly with long-standing partner AOHC, a nonprofit organization representing Ohio’s local health districts, to capture the local health department perspectives by establishing a diverse focus group, facilitating surveys, and gathering feedback.

With AOHC support, ODH was able to successfully field its first survey with responses from 111 public health leaders and emergency response coordinators. Survey results indicated consistent responses when considering challenges experienced or expected with reporting MCM data, with three clear themes emerging:

• A lack of continuity between systems and compatibility (i.e., the duplication of efforts due to having both local and centralized data solutions).
• Staffing constraints, including time, money, and personnel.
• Issues with data accuracy and efficiency, having no standard nomenclature for reporting resources and allocation.

The survey also captured proposed solutions for enhancing bidirectional MCM data sharing, with a centralized system being the top-ranked theme as the most relevant to respondents. A state-wide system would allow for state and local health agencies' visibility and real-time documentation that could be easily reported for state and federal requests. Another recurring theme was the importance of collaboration and diversifying partnerships, which will only aid in furthering MCM efforts within Ohio.

MCM Summit

To further collaborate with local public health and healthcare stakeholders, ODH held a one-day summit—Medical Countermeasures for a More Prepared Ohio—focused on enhancing MCM preparedness and response through improved integration with public health partners. The summit offered an opportunity for participants to develop local and regional relationships, initiate discussions, and increase awareness and collaboration through operational data sharing.

The presentations and workshop included speakers from Ohio State University, Columbus Public Health, Cardinal Health, MMCAP Infuse, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ohio Department of Health. The sessions centered around developing a unified operational view, the equitable and timely distribution of MCMs, better integration of the healthcare supply chain into public health preparedness, and medical surge response during public health emergencies. The workshop then allowed attendees to work through a developing medical surge scenario, including steady-state situational awareness and the transition into initial response decisions and subsequent MCM distribution and logistics. Feedback from the event has been extremely positive, with participants sharing takeaways that could be leveraged in their jurisdictional planning:

• “How we may be able to better plan for shortages by leveraging private sector opportunities.”
• “We have a strong working relationship with our partners that needs to be protected and promoted.”
• “Showing the importance of MCM and keeping better inventory along with learning more about MCM supply chain process, how my organization uses it, and who they order from.”
• “Overall, I enjoyed the event. I felt the morning speakers were strong and informative. I really took away a lot regarding supply chain dynamics.”

Opportunities to Improve Data Readiness and Response

During the data readiness project, ODH identified critical opportunities for local, state, and federal partners to bolster data modernization efforts and improve efficiencies, mainly through standardization and interoperability. Currently, MCM distribution and reporting are largely directed by two federal agencies, CDC and ASPR, which use different processes as well as reporting and tracking systems. Improving the alignment of requesting and reporting processes for local agencies would reduce administrative burden during an emergency response. The standardization of data elements across agencies, as well as the reporting requirements, would reduce duplication of effort and improve jurisdictional capacity to respond to public health emergencies where MCMs are deployed. The next phase for Ohio includes leveraging the relationships developed during the project to continue to improve state responsiveness and effective through planning, exercising, and determining a feasible data solution that supports the goals of the state’s evolving MCM strategy.