Guide to Contracting Public Health Drills and Exercises

In the wake of September 11, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) made available hundreds of millions of dollars through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) to assist State, Local, and Territorial Health departments increase their capacity to respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. The funding has allowed public health agencies across the country to develop and test emergency preparedness and response plans. While the development of these plans has occurred within health departments, the testing of the plans have on occasion been contracted, or outsourced, to private contractors. The purpose of this guide is not to provide the reader with a detailed history of government contracting, or how it is being used to parse out emergency preparedness funds. The purpose of this guide is to assist state and local health departments in the process of contracting out the function of conducting drills and exercises to test emergency preparedness plans. The guide grew from requests by state and local health departments for criteria and standard processes that would assist them in successfully selecting and managing a contractor that would effectively and efficiently deliver an exercise that was meaningful to public health practice. This guide was developed in coordination with experts in public health, emergency response, exercise planning, and an extensive review of published and ‘grey’ literature relevant to planning and conducting public health emergency drills and exercises. The National Center for Disaster Preparedness in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University thanks all of those who assisted in this effort