HHS has awarded $352 million to U.S. hospitals and health care systems for help in preparing disaster preparedness plans.

The money is used by health care organizations to hire experts on preparedness plans and to buy equipment including mobile medical units and communications apparatus used to stay in touch with local government officials. Funding is also used to train hospital staff members about how to respond to disasters and to put systems in place to track the number of available hospital beds.

Additional disaster preparedness money is expected to be released later this summer through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source: CQ