Who We Are Overview
Mission
The mission of the Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition is to facilitate coordination and cooperation throughout the Metrolina region to ensure partners have the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergent health and medical events.
The MHPC facilitates a regional healthcare preparedness program that enables Local, Regional, and State partners to collectively improve response to and recovery from major emergencies.
History
The MHPC began as a subcommittee of the Metrolina Trauma Advisory Committee (MTAC) in 2002 and was known as the Disaster Preparedness Committee. The initial role was to manage the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) funding. This federal program, operated by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is administered in the State of North Carolina by the Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS). The goal of this funding was to enhance the ability of hospitals and EMS to respond to a disaster.
This funding came to the Metrolina region through the Level 1 Trauma Center at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. Because of this, CMC functions as the lead healthcare facility for the program and provides the infrastructure for the MHPC staff as well as operational support.
In January 2012, APSR released the Healthcare Preparedness Capabilities. This provided an enhanced vision for healthcare disaster response. It transitioned the program towards planning and preparedness in addition to response. Joint planning was strongly encouraged to meet these goals.
In January 2013, having increased its scope and outgrowing its role as a subcommittee, the DPC separated from MTAC and formed the Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition. Through the years, the purpose of the MHPC has been to facilitate joint planning, response and recovery to a disaster. This has led to the continued integration of public health and emergency management into the planning team as well as expansion to other healthcare partners like long term care, community health centers, law enforcement, and fire departments.