What Is PHERN?
Public Health Emergency Response Network (PHERN) Partners are companies and organizations in Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill Counties in Oregon and Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington that are willing to partner with Public Health during public health emergencies.
What Does PHERN Do?
In a biological terrorism scenario, PHERN partners help by getting no-cost life saving medication to their staff, families and clients under appropriate guidance from local Public Health. In an emergency where vaccine needs to be distributed over several weeks or months, PHERN may not be asked to help in favor of distributing vaccine through more traditional channels such as healthcare clinics and pharmacies. In events that are not public health emergencies, or where there is not a medication to give, PHERN may be called upon to assist in sharing information with their staff, families and clients.
How Does PHERN Help My Organization?
In the event of a major emergency, your organization may be able to receive rapid access to information and, in the case of a Public Health emergency, no-cost life saving medication. This service requires only your willingness to share information and dispense critical medication as a closed Point of Dispensing (POD). Note that in an emergency where vaccine is the medical countermeasure that needs to be distributed, PHERN partners may not be asked to help, particularly not those without licensed healthcare providers on staff or available to the organization.
Who Should Be a PHERN Partner?
Large OrganizationsOrganizations with large numbers of staff on centrally located campuses including private business, healthcare and key community partners essential to successful response.
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Critical Service Providers |
Organizations with important roles during emergencies including:
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What Are the Requirements?
- Your organization must either be a large organization or a critical service provider.
- Complete an enrollment form and update it every five years.
- Update your contact information and employee numbers when there are changes.
- Respond to two annual call down drills.
- Maintain a plan for dispensing the public health provided medication at your organization.
Will My Organization Be Liable?
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The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a PREP Act declaration that provides immunity from liability (except for willful misconduct) for claims of loss caused, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from administration or use of countermeasures to diseases, threats and conditions determined by the Secretary to constitute a present, or credible risk of a future public health emergency to entities and individuals involved in the development, manufacture, testing, distribution, administration, and use of such countermeasures. A PREP Act declaration is specifically for the purpose of providing immunity from liability, and is different from, and not dependent on, other emergency declarations.
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How Will You Protect My Organization's Anonymity?
In an emergency where the PHERN is activated your organization's anonymity is very important to us. We understand that you will be working hard to keep your routine operations going while also getting lifesaving medication to your employees and their families. Some of you will also be focused on taking care of clients. For these reasons, we will not tell the media or publish your identity. Instead we will use general public messages like “please go to the most convenient point of dispensing or check with your employer."
Talk To Your Employees
It is important to communicate your decision to join PHERN to your employees. Consider modifying one of these information sharing templates to suit your needs.
After You Enroll
Write Your Plan
When you're ready to write your dispensing plan these editable plan templates can help get you started. We are here to help you with your plan by providing advice, feedback and review.
The POD tools page has specific tools for use in your POD plan.
Exercise Your Plan
We are available to assist you with your POD exercise any time. Local and regional exercise opportunities arise from time to time and as a PHERN partner we will notify about exercise opportunities.
