Regional Disaster Health Response System

Regional Disaster Health Response System

About the RDHRS

Many communities do not have all the resources needed to respond effectively to a disaster. Regional coordination can increase access to important health care resources including burn centers, pediatric hospitals, labs, and outpatient services. Regional solutions may also help health care providers evaluate and treat patients faster, resulting in better patient outcomes.

ASPR is working to establish regional partnerships to address health care preparedness challenges, establish best practices, expand access to specialty clinical care, and increase medical surge capacity. ASPR’s Regional Disaster Health Response System (RDHRS) is a tiered system that builds upon and unifies existing assets within states and across regions to support a more coherent, comprehensive, and capable health care disaster response system able to respond to health security threats.

To create regional coordination, RDHRS has initiated pilot demonstration sites to establish and mature multi-state partnerships, building on local health care coalitions and trauma centers, and integrating local medical response capabilities with emergency medical services, burn centers, pediatric hospitals, labs, and outpatient services to meet overwhelming health care needs created by disasters.

HHS Selects Fourth RDHRS Demonstration Site and Continues Funding Current Sites

On October 5, 2021, ASPR announced the selection of a fourth regional disaster health response system (RDHRS) demonstration site. The new Southern RDHRS based out of Emory University in Region 4 will support a regional approach for health care readiness.

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