State Planning Efforts

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has two key goals. The first is helping Ohioans prepare for a pandemic now and the second is being ready to slow the spread of the disease when the pandemic begins, when a vaccine is unavailable and antiviral medicines are in short supply.

Protecting Ohioans
Recognizing the importance of “buying time” at the start of a pandemic, ODH continues to develop a community containment plan to limit transmission of the flu virus. A draft plan will be submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) March 1; future versions of the plan will reflect feedback from our Ohio partners.

To help protect Ohioans who become ill with the pandemic strain of flu, the Ohio General Assembly appropriated $17 million to purchase antiviral medicines. These medicines will be securely stored in the state for rapid distribution when needed. ODH’s draft plan for antiviral use adopts the CDC recommendations: using antiviral medicines for treatment to prevent deaths and decrease the severity of the illness.

ODH is working to protect Ohio’s most vulnerable residents. ODH is now identifying alternatives and resources for those in need of dialysis, prescription medicines and home care supplies. ODH is drafting a plan to help immunocompromised populations and is also developing a general response plan to provide local health departments a model to address special needs populations in their area. With the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, ODH completed a plan for migrant populations and has worked with the Ohio Legal Rights Council to distribute a special needs emergency planning booklet.

To effectively prepare for a pandemic, Ohio’s governments, businesses, community organizations and families must have science’s best and latest information about the disease. ODH has focused significant time and effort ensuring our partners and Ohio residents are well informed about pandemic influenza and what the State of Ohio is doing to prepare. After hosting a statewide planning summit in February 2006, ODH launched an interagency “one-stop” Web site http://www.ohiopandemicflu.gov. ODH publishes quarterly planning newsletters for businesses, schools, local government and faith-based and community organizations. ODH has conducted various print and broadcast paid media campaigns informing Ohioans what they can do to prepare for pandemic flu and other emergencies. An informational video DVD and several thousand copies of printed information (e.g., fact sheets, guides) on avian, seasonal and pandemic flu were distributed at the Ohio State Fair. ODH continues to receive requests for these materials and distributes them upon request.

Assisting the Medical Community
During an influenza pandemic, the number of patients will likely overwhelm health care resources quickly. ODH is collaborating with medical partners on medical surge issues by determining what needs to be addressed in anticipation of an increased demand on medical services (med surge) during an influenza pandemic.  To this end, ODH has established a Medical Surge Committee; partners participating on the committee include long-term care, primary care providers and institutions, free clinics, hospitals, Ohio National Guard, Ohio EMA, health professional boards, home care, Ohio Division of EMS, Ohio Department of Mental Health, Ohio Department of Youth Services, and Ohio Department of Corrections.  The Medical Surge Committee is working on the following tasks:

  1. Scope of practice issues:  Develop tiers of care when resources are scarce along with altered standards of care guidance, including how implementation should be communicated.
  2. Ethical issues:  Develop guidance document to assist decision making regarding when and how scarce resources are allocated – use a public process to discuss putting values on lives based on the likely ability to save the greatest number of individuals.
  3. Legal issues:  Draft language for inclusion in the Ohio Revised Code to create immunity or assume liability for health care providers practicing under altered standards of care when declared by the State of Ohio.
  4. Insurance/reimbursement issues:  Assure coverage under private insurance irrespective of where care is provided; Address malpractice insurance considerations.
  5. Hospital and community issues:  Determine hospital capacity (e.g., bed capacity, negative airflow room capacity and number of ventilators).  ODH has purchased more than 500 ventilators (used to help the patients breathe) for use during a pandemic and is developing a distribution plan with regional hospital coordinators and other designated medical professionals (e.g., respiratory therapists) to guide placement at sites throughout Ohio
  6. Public information and guidance:  Develop instructions for families who will care for their sick at home.

Internal Preparations
With the creation of an on-site department operations center, ODH will be able to operate from one location and more easily gather and disseminate crucial information. Policies and procedures for the department operations center are nearly complete.

ODH utilizes the nationally-adopted and standardized incident command system (ICS) during substantial public health events. During a pandemic, up to 40 percent of employees may be home sick or caring for sick family members. By this summer, all ODH employees will be trained on ICS, as well as the National Incident Management System and the National Response Plan. Upon completion of this training, ODH’s table of organization for pandemic influenza will be three-deep with employees trained to serve in identified capacities.

ODH developed a business continuity plan, identifying its critical business functions and developing strategies to ensure that they can continue.  This required looking at not only the physical needs of each business function but the personnel needs since pandemic influenza will impact.  ODH, DAS and Ohio EMA then worked with the other state agencies to insure that all state agencies had a workable plan.  These plans were exercised with the Governor’s office in June and again in November 2006.

Because of the large number of deaths possible during a pandemic, fatality management is an important issue. ODH has implemented a new electronic death registry system.

Support Agency Functions
ODH serves as a support agency on other projects related to an influenza pandemic. ODH is working with the Ohio Community Service Council on volunteer management and donations and mass care; all state agencies on continuity of operations planning for a pandemic; and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency on mass fatality planning and community recovery and mitigation. 

For more information on what the state of Ohio is doing to prepare for pandemic flu visit: