**GAO-10-381T**                      Published: Jan 25, 2010. Publicly Released: Jan 25, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

Potential terrorist attacks and the possibility of naturally occurring disease outbreaks have raised concerns about the "surge capacity" of the nation's health care systems to respond to mass casualty events. The statement GAO is issuing today summarizes a June 2008 report, Emergency Preparedness: States Are Planning for Medical Surge, but Could Benefit from Shared Guidance for Allocating Scare Medical Resources (GAO-08-668). In that report, GAO was asked to examine the assistance the federal government had provided to help states prepare for medical surge and what states had done to prepare for medical surge. To do this GAO reviewed documents from the 50 states and federal agencies and interviewed officials from a judgmental sample of 20 states and from federal agencies, as well as emergency preparedness experts.

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## Topics

Homeland Security

Disaster planningDisaster recoveryEmergency managementEmergency medical response plansEmergency medical servicesEmergency preparednessEmergency preparedness programsEmergency responseEmergency response plansEmergency response proceduresHealth care facilitiesHealth care personnelHealth care planningHealth care programsHealth resources utilizationHospitalsPolicy evaluationProgram evaluationProgram managementStandardsStrategic planningTerrorismDisaster medical assistanceProgram goals or objectives