AHRQ released Emergency Preparedness Atlas: U.S. Nursing Home and Hospital Facilities, which is a case study intended to help local communities identify the health care facilities (hospitals and nursing homes) that could be available and prepared to provide assistance under emergency conditions in their communitiess. Also published with the Atlas is a report, Nursing Homes in Public Health Emergencies, which presents the results of a series of focus groups convened to collect information about disastyer - and bioterrorism - related planning activites among nursing home in the same six states used in the Atlas case study series.

AHRQ's Mass Casualty Event (MCE) planning guide, An interesting and helpful guide relating to
providing mass medical care in situations involving scarce resources.

Elements of Effective Bioterrorism Preparedness: A Planning Primer for Local Health Agencies
By Michael R. Fraser and V. Scott Fisher, National Association of County and City Health Officials
This primer was developed to assist local public health officials and their partners in identifying their public health and safety roles when responding to bioterrorism, including coordinating their piece of the larger response. This will involve criminal investigation and other emergency management authorities at the local, state, and federal levels, and jointly plan response activities with partners in neighboring local and state public health systems.

Centers for Public Health Preparedness, Year One Report: Leading the Way in Building Response Capacity for Local Public Health
Centers for Public Health Preparedness
Project was developed by the CDC to create models for implementing information technology and training in support of bioterrorism preparedness and emergency response. Three local public health agencies were selected as Centers for Public Health Preparedness (DeKalbCounty Board of Health, Georgia; Denver Health, Colorado; and Monroe County Health Department, New York) to serve as a learning resource for other local public health agencies as they work to improve on integrated communications and information systems across multiple sectors, advanced operational readiness assessment, and comprehensive bioterrorism training and evaluation activities. This report provides preliminary lessons learned.

Ongoing Study: Evaluation of the Metropolitan Medical Response System Program to Enhance Local Capability to Respond to Terrorism with Weapons of Mass Destruction
Institute of Medicine
This study will identify, recommend, and develop performance measures and systems to assess the effectiveness of, and identify barriers related to, the MMRS development process, as well as evaluation methods, tools, and processes for assessment.