While public health and medical preparedness are shared responsibilities, the specificPublic Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Capabilitiesare developed and coordinated by theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC established the "15 Public Health Preparedness Capabilities" as the national standard for state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) health departments to use in their planning and to justify federal grant funding.
The 15 PHEP capabilities include:
* Community Preparedness
* Community Recovery
* Emergency Operations Coordination
* Emergency Public Information and Warning
* Fatality Management
* Information Sharing
* Mass Care
* Medical Countermeasure Dispensing and Administration
* Medical Materiel Management and Distribution
* Medical Surge
* Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
* Public Health Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation
* Public Health Laboratory Testing
* Responder Safety and Health
* Volunteer Management
In contrast,ASPR(Option A) coordinates the "Healthcare Preparedness Capabilities," which focus on hospitals and healthcare coalitions. The CDC's focus is broader, addressing the underlying public health infrastructure, such as laboratory testing (Capability 13) and epidemiological investigation (Capability 12). For aCEDPprofessional, the CDC's standards are the "baseline" for community health resilience. When a health department is awarded PHEP funding, they are held accountable for demonstrating their ability to perform these specific functions. This ensures that the nation's public health system is not just reactive to diseases, but is a robust, capability-based shield capable of managing the health impacts of any hazard, from a natural disaster to a biological attack.