National Health Security Strategy

The National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) is a strategic plan for 2010 developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to help minimize the consequences associated with significant health incidents. The purpose of the plan is to provide coordination between separate organisations in order to reduce the social and economic cost in the case of a significant health incident. The strategy covers coordination of preparation and contingency planning, incident identification and recovery strategies relevant to each stakeholder in the event of a national health incident.

The aim of the document is that when a health incident occurs, all appropriate organisations will coordinate and minimise the effect of the incident on the nation. In addition to this the strategy includes a framework for the accountability and assessment of implementation including eventual assessment criteria.

The document was initially developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services in consultation with stakeholder organisations as required by the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act. These include local, state, territorial, tribal and federal governments; community focus groups, private sector firms and academic advisers.

The National Health Security Strategy was first published in 2009 with an implementation schedule extending until 2014. In addition to this an interim implementation guide was published in 2010 and then every two years in order to provide additional guidance as the project matures.

The National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) was developed to improve coordination and response of stakeholders in the event of a health incident, and thereby minimise the consequences of that incident. The strategy provides a framework for improvement within the scope of the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act, which aims to improve the preparedness and response of the nation to emergencies.

In preparing the strategy, its developers consulted with a range of independent stakeholders, reflecting the wide scope of organisations which would be involved in the strategy. In particular, developers consulted all levels of medical organisations and government from local to federal grades. The developers also consulted with community organisations, private-sector firms and academia.

The principle of health security defined in the NHSS is built on the principle of community resilience. This means that in an emergency healthy individuals, families, and communities with access to health care, and with the knowledge and resources to know what to do to care for themselves and others would work together in both routine and emergency situations.

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