Broward County has an estimated population of 1,946,104 with 63.1% white, 30.2% black and 6.7% other. Ethnicity for Broward County’s population is 31.1% Hispanic, 34.8% non-Hispanic and 38.7 unknown. COVID cases have disproportionately affected the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions. This innovative process is intended to guide how to prioritize the fulfillment of resource requests for PPE across the state to meet the needs of the response to COVID-19. PPE is a scarce resource and difficult to procure across the state, nationally, and internationally. The Florida Department of Health is responsible for ESF-8 leadership. Under a normal activation, all resource requests from healthcare facilities (e.g., hospitals) would be going to ESF-8, then to the Human Services Branch Director. Once it was approved by the Human Services Branch Director, he/she forwards it to the Mission Tracking Unit (part of Logistics Section), who will then submit it to Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM). If any resource request errors were discovered, the request would be sent back to the requestor for correction, thus stopping the process.
According to the CDC, PPE is effective in reducing the transmission of COVID but resources were scarce. As PPE supplies were being received from the State of Florida and federal government, ESF-8 needed to develop a more streamlined PPE resource request process. DOH-Broward, Broward County Emergency Management Division (BEMD), and the Broward County Healthcare Coalition (BCHC) met virtually to develop a process to ensure scarce PPE resources were allocated based on need. We did not know how many resource request the healthcare facilities would be submitting. It was decided to streamline the request process for the sake of all stakeholders. To ensure efficiencies of scale, reduce wait times and to speed up delivery of PPE, it was decided to eliminate the ESF-8 step and have healthcare facilities directly provide a completed resource request via e-mail to the Human Services Branch Director. A dedicated email was sent to receive these resource requests.
Web Emergency Operations Center (WebEOC) is FEMA's Crisis Management System (CMS). WebEOC supports emergency management processes and functions by providing a real- time common operating picture for FEMA headquarters and regions, as well as for federal, state, territory, and tribal partners. Resource requests were entered into WebEOC and submitted to the Mission Tracking Unit, who will forward it to FDEM.
A dedicated email was set up to field PPE resource requests. Attached you will find the instructions that we have created that were sent to healthcare facilities, along with the State Emergency Requisition form and the Broward County Resource Request form. All three forms with instructions were emailed to appropriate healthcare facilities.
To review, the process between BEMD and BCHC:
1. Created a dedicated e-mail for the purposes of receiving the facilities requests electronically
2. Staff were assigned to monitor the email address for incoming requests
3. The instructions were for the facilities to e-mail the completed request forms to this e-mail address
4. PPE resource requests were entered into WebEOC.
5. Once entered into WebEOC, EMD will forward requests to the Mission Tracking Unit who is responsible for entering requests into the state WebEOC.
6. The originator of the request (healthcare facility) will be notified directly from the State.
To ensure PPE resources was allocated equitably based on priority populations that have the greatest risk of becoming infected and seriously ill, facilities needed to include in their requests:
· Calculate burn rate: Recommend fill orders for up to 7 days (with assurance no gap between current order and new order)
· Amount - Methodology for quantities of PPE allocate (Recommendation based on facility size, number of HC workers, number of confirmed or suspected cases – or # patients needing to be assessed X # PPE change changes necessary X number of days being fulfilled for)
· The prioritization document does not guarantee fulfillment of every order that meets the priority criteria nor does it ensure fulfilment of complete orders.
If an incomplete form was received from a facility, staff would call or send an e-mail informing them that their request is rejected and to please submit the complete information.