BMC Public Health 2006, 6:285 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/285 a service-oriented organization is perhaps its single most valued attribute among government partners. BENS zeal- ously guards its reputation in this regard. In a rare instance when a BENS member appeared to government partners as self-promoting, BENS leadership removed that person from the project team. Strategic engagement of senior business and government officials BENS leadership is strategic in its outreach to government partners at federal, state, and local levels, and BENS staff explicitly identify building personal links as a strategic pri- ority. As part of this approach, BENS is able to leverage the seniority of its members into contacts with senior busi- ness and government officials. Business respondents often cited the support of top-level executives in their compa- nies as critical; likewise, government respondents repeat- edly cited the governor's support for collaboration with BENS as an essential catalyst for the partnership. Business model The BENS business model for collaboration includes a)identifying partners' needs and assets, b) developing focused priorities and project concepts that are consistent with its overall mission, and c) initiating projects that can be tested and measurably evaluated. This has been a work- able model that has been embraced by both government and business partners. Conceptual link between business and community continuity As part of its Business Force model, BENS has successfully linked the concept of business continuity planning, an activity that is familiar to business, to the concept of com- munity continuity. Simultaneously, collaboration with BENS has enabled public health leaders to better under- stand the role of businesses in community continuity as essential to disaster response and recovery. Links to multiple government agencies The collaborations that BENS has with emergency man- agement, public safety, and homeland security agencies in Georgia have facilitated links with public health. As one public health official noted, "We all go to each other's meet- ings." For example, public health has the lead on SNS dis- pensing, and officials from other state agencies participate in SNS workgroups. In turn, the Georgia Emergency Man- agement Agency has the lead for projects that address pro- tecting critical infrastructures, linking business partners to the state's emergency operations center, and hurricane preparedness, but public health is represented at these meetings. The credibility that BENS has established and maintains with other agencies "makes it easier for public health to work with BENS." Benefits of business and public health collaboration Identifying benefits that have arisen from the collabora- tion involves two questions: 1) Has the collaboration led to more effective responses to actual emergencies, and 2) Is Georgia better prepared to address a future large-scale emergency? The most dramatic emergency to occur during the course of the partnership was Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Although Georgia was not directly hit by the storm, Geor- gia was the destination for thousands of evacuees from the Gulf coast; and Georgia government agencies and busi- nesses contributed to recovery and relief efforts in directly affected states. The response to Hurricane Katrina did not involve mass dispensing from the SNS in Georgia, the focus of the BENS-public health collaboration, but respondents provided multiple anecdotes describing BENS members' support for the response. As several respondents observed, the director of the BENS Metro Atlanta Region was "on the phone 24/7" fielding requests for assistance from government officials and offers of assistance from businesses and making connections to match resources to needs. For example, as the result of business contacts, BENS staff made connections with the airline company that transported evacuees from New Orleans, resulting in better information for public health and healthcare providers about flight arrival times in Georgia and passengers' health status. Other contacts through BENS enabled support for transportation of peo- ple and supplies to the Gulf region, assistance in restoring critical telecommunications links, and donations of ware- house space to store and distribute clothing and other donated materials. Regarding preparedness for a future large-scale public health emergency, all respondents felt that response capacity, particularly in the metropolitan Atlanta area, has been strengthened. Nonetheless, they cautioned that the impact of the collaboration is difficult to quantify, they varied in how they gauged readiness, and they agreed that substantial work remains. Perspectives included the fol- lowing comments: "If we had a massive anthrax exposure in the middle of Atlanta tomorrow, we'd probably have a fiasco. But the response would be much more effective than it would have been several years ago, and we are much better positioned to prepare for a future attack than we were several years ago." "Are we better prepared? Absolutely, but we're not ready. We're halfway through the first quarter." "We're not done... but if something happened today, we could really help. We have the relationships and a model for corporate involvement. We could get the business commitment. " Page 7 of 13 (page number not for citation purposes)