WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senator Pat Roberts announced today a grant of $4.52 million to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to enhance emergency preparedness and terrorism response programs for Kansas hospitals and other health care providers.

The Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program is designed to help increase the ability of hospitals and other health care institutions to deal with a large number of casualties as a result of a public health emergency. The program has been in existence for four years and focuses on expansion of hospital beds, increasing the available number of health care personnel, establishing hospital-based pharmaceutical caches, improving communications, and procuring personal protective equipment.

In addition to supporting healthcare facilities in Kansas, funds are also designated for the Emergency Management Services Board in order to develop a more comprehensive emergency response plan to react to unforeseen disasters, the KU poison control center, and the creation of an electronic disease surveillance system to detect biological threats.

Funds for the program are allocated through bioterrorism legislation generated by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) and are awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the Department of Health and Human Services.

As the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness, Senator Roberts has long been concerned about the threats from biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear attacks and the potential damage a natural threat, such as pandemic flu, could cause.

In July, the HELP Committee approved legislation, cosponsored by Roberts, to renew the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-188) in order to strengthen our public health infrastructure in the event of deliberate or natural public health emergencies. The legislation, S. 3678, also builds on the Project BioShield Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-276) to accelerate advanced research and development of drugs and vaccines to protect the United States from health emergencies, such as pandemic flu. S. 3678 now awaits action by the full Senate.

Roberts said, "We learned great lessons from both September 11^th and Hurricane Katrina regarding our public health system. This bill builds on those lessons to improve our public health and medical preparedness and response capabilities for emergencies."

For more information, please contact the Kansas Department of Health and Environment or visit http://www.kdheks.gov/.