(Bethesda, MD, January 16, 2009) – The Bethesda Hospitals Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP) has announced a coordinated plan to address a significant surge in patients if Inaugural events require such actions.

Members of the Partnership have been meeting with federal, state, and local officials for the past two months to prepare for the care of additional patients who will be transferred out to Montgomery County hospitals in the event the DC hospitals become overwhelmed with patients.  The plan will address an influx of patients with routine medical ailments such as injuries, heart attacks, hypothermia, and respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses, as well as mass casualties in the event of a natural or man-made disaster occurring during the Inauguration activities.

Congress established the BETHESDA HOSPITALS’ EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PARTERSHIP in 2004 through the efforts of Congressmen Young (FL) and Van Hollen (MD) to respond rapidly and successfully to any National Capital, large-scale natural or man-made emergency. The BHEPP partnership is also designed as a reproducible and exportable model of emergency preparedness for the nation.

This unique collaboration between the Department of Defense (DoD),  The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the private sector consists of the National Naval Medical Center and Suburban Hospital (both trauma hospitals), National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, and the National Library of Medicine.

Included in BHEPP’s many activities is a large-scale, annual capability exercise that includes most of Montgomery County and local federal/DoD agencies.  The most recent drill carried out on October 30, 2009, demonstrated BHEPP’s readiness for the January 20, 2009 inauguration.

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