Value, 2004

American Hospital Association

January 2004

The American Hospital Association (AHA) provides the Bioterrorism and Epidemic Outbreak Response Model (BERM) through its Web site to assist hospitals in planning and responding to a disaster that would call for mass prophylaxis of a population. The BERM was developed through AHRQ-funded research at Weill Cornell Medical College and is the first such computer model that hospitals and public health agencies can download and customize to meet their local needs.

The model has been downloaded nearly 1,000 times from the AHA site. Hospital emergency planning staffs may download the model and use it to assess what would be required to staff and operate a clinic to handle mass prophylaxis given their specific population size and staff limitations. Hospitals can examine various scenarios using Excel spreadsheet software.

AHA makes the model available under the conditions that the model is downloaded for specific individual applications by organizations and for personal use, provided the copyright notice is included. AHA requires users to register prior to downloading to help in providing the best possible technical support and to allow HHS and AHRQ to evaluate use of the model. As of July 2004, 162 responses to the online user survey evaluating BERM had been received.

The model can be downloaded at: http://www.hospitalconnect.com/aha/key_issues/disaster_readiness/resources/vaccination.html. A Web-based version of the model in html format is available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/research/biomodel.htm.

AHA is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. AHA is composed of nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care, and 37,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the organization provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends.

Impact Case Study Identifier: Multi-Center 04-09 (CDOM, CP3)
AHRQ-Sponsored Activity: Research
Topic(s): Bioterrorism
Scope: National

Hupert N, Mushlin AI, Callahan MA. Modeling the public health response to bioterrorism: Using discrete event simulation to design antibiotic distribution centers. Medical Decision Making 2002; 22(Suppl):S17-S25. AHRQ Contract No. 290-00-0013.

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Current as of September 2009

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Internet Citation:

Impact Case Studies and Knowledge Transfer Case Studies: Value, 2004. September 2009. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/about/casestudies/value/val2004.htm

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