The Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) is a United States federal program to establish and implement guidelines and standards for the registration, credentialing, and deployment of medical professionals in the event of a large scale national emergency. The program is administered under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness & Response (ASPR) within the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness of the
United States Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
. The ESAR-VHP standards are mandated to American states and territories, enabling an enhanced national interstate and intrastate system for using and sharing medical professionals.
History
After complications arose in the use of medical volunteers following
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
,
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
authorized the
Health Resources and Services Administration
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services located in North Bethesda, Maryland. It is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for peop ...
(HRSA) to develop ESAR-VHP. In December, 2006, th
Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Actreassigned responsibility for ESAR-VHP to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Section 203 of the
Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (H.R. 307; 113th Congress) reauthorized the ESAR-VHP for Fiscal years 2014–2018.
See also
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Emergency management
Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...
*
Incident Command System
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized approach to the command, control, and coordination of emergency response providing a common hierarchy within which responders from multiple agencies can be effective.
ICS was initially develo ...
*
National Response Plan
The National Response Plan (NRP) was a United States national plan to respond to emergencies such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks. It came into effect in December 2004, and was superseded by the National Response Framework on March 22, 20 ...
*
Medical Reserve Corps
The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a network in the U.S. of community-based units initiated and established by local organizations aimed to meet the public health needs of their communities. It is sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary ...
Notes/References
External links
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
United States Department of Health and Human Services
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