CPCA & Disaster Relief Partners Support Health Centers Amid Public Health and Climate-Related Emergencies
End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Declarations
During the past three years, California community health centers (CHCs) were on the frontlines of COVID-19 response and recovery efforts; their commitment to testing, treatment, and vaccine distribution played a critical role as part of an equitable healthcare delivery system response. Earlier this year, the Biden Administration announced its intent to end the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) and associated national emergency declaration on May 11, 2023; the California COVID-19 State of Emergency expired February 28, 2023. The expiration of these declarations brings an end to vital policies enacted during the pandemic to allow necessary flexibility and resources for CHCs to serve their patients and communities. CPCA held an All-Member Call on March 20th for member CHCs to learn about the changes the expiration of the PHEs would bring and how it would impact CHCs and their patients. The call provided an opportunity to share resources available to continue supporting operations and patient care, as well as a space for CHCs to ask questions. To supplement the call, CPCA staff created a dashboard that provides summaries, important dates, impact to CHCs, and other resources related to the expiration of the PHE and allows CHCs to submit feedback and questions they may have.
Winter Storms & Floods: Partnerships Provide Support to Impacted Health Centers
In just the past three months, multiple Emergency Declarations were issued across the state by Governor Newsom in response to numerous winter storms that brought heavy rain and snow, strong winds, power outages, and road closures. Series of atmospheric rivers brought additional rain and snow, causing major flooding and the potential for landslides. Presidential Emergency Declarations were also issued and authorized Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local response efforts, ensuring additional funding and resources were made available to impacted communities.
Through outreach efforts, CPCA learned that many members’ operations and patient care were impacted due to flooding, power outages, and dangerous road conditions. CPCA staff acted quickly to inform members of available resources, share funding opportunities through FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration, and connect those impacted and that required additional support with our disaster relief partners, Americares and Direct Relief. During the winter storms, Universal Community Health Center (UCHC) in Los Angeles suffered a significant loss of equipment and supplies as a result of the roof collapsing under heavy rain. Americares is working with UCHC to provide grant support and to help restock some of the medicines and medical supplies lost due to the flooding. Over the course of the past year, Direct Relief was able to support over 94 health centers and clinics with 1,164 shipments of medicine and medical supplies valued at over $6 million dollars. CPCA’s partnerships with Americares and Direct Relief are critical in supporting CHCs’ preparedness and response to emergencies and disasters so that they are able to continue providing care and serving their communities.
Health centers are encouraged to share any disruptions or impact to operations and patient care with our Emergency Management team so that CPCA can advocate for needed funding and resources to continue supporting CHCs, staff, and patients. To report an impact, or for questions and support, please reach out to Ivan Prado, Program Coordinator of Health Center Operations, at iprado@cpca.org.