The Road to Resilience: Insights on Training Community Coalitions in the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 812-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biblia S. Cha ◽  
Rachel I. Lawrence ◽  
Jesse C. Bliss ◽  
Kenneth B. Wells ◽  
Anita Chandra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Community Coalitions ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Building Activities ◽  
Community Disaster Resilience

AbstractObjectiveLocal health departments (LHDs) have little guidance for operationalizing community resilience (CR). We explored how community coalitions responded to 4 CR levers (education, engagement, partnerships, and community self-sufficiency) during the first planning year of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience (LACCDR) Project.MethodsSixteen communities were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental CR group or the control preparedness group. Eight CR coalitions met monthly to plan CR-building activities or to receive CR training from a public health nurse. Trained observers documented the coalitions’ understanding and application of CR at each meeting. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze structured observation reports around the 4 levers.ResultsAnalysis of 41 reports suggested that coalitions underwent a process of learning about and applying CR concepts in the planning year. Groups resonated with ideas of education, community self-sufficiency, and engagement, but increasing partnerships was challenging.ConclusionsLHDs can support coalitions by anticipating the time necessary to understand CR and by facilitating engagement. Understanding the issues that emerge in the early phases of planning and implementing CR-building activities is critical. LHDs can use the experience of the LACCDR Project’s planning year as a guide to navigate challenges and issues that emerge as they operationalize the CR model. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:812–821)

Developing a Tabletop Exercise to Test Community Resilience: Lessons from the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 484-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Chandra ◽  
Malcolm V. Williams ◽  
Christian Lopez ◽  
Jennifer Tang ◽  
David Eisenman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Heat Wave ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Study Team ◽  
Resilience Intervention ◽  
Community Disaster Resilience

AbstractObjectiveWe aimed to develop and test a community resilience tabletop exercise to assess progress in community resilience and to provide an opportunity for quality improvement and capacity building.MethodsA tabletop exercise was developed for the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience (LACCDR) project by using an extended heat wave scenario with health and infrastructure consequences. The tabletop was administered to preparedness only (control) and resilience (intervention) coalitions during the summer of 2014. Each exercise lasted approximately 2 hours. The coalitions and LACCDR study team members independently rated each exercise to assess 4 resilience levers (partnership, engagement, self-sufficiency, and education). Resilience coalitions received more detailed feedback in the form of recommendations for improvement.ResultsThe resilience coalitions performed the same or better than the preparedness coalitions on the partnership and self-sufficiency levers. Most coalitions did not have enough (both quantity and type) of the partner organizations needed for an escalating heat wave or changing conditions or enough engagement of organizations representing at-risk populations. Coalitions also lacked educational materials to cover topics as far ranging as heat to power outages to psychological impacts of disaster.ConclusionA tabletop exercise can be used to stress and test resilience-based capacities, with particular attention to a community’s ability to leverage a range of partnerships and other assets to confront a slowly evolving but multifactorial emergency. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:484–488)

scholarly journals Getting Actionable About Community Resilience: The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (7) ◽  
pp. 1181-1189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Chandra ◽  
Malcolm Williams ◽  
Alonzo Plough ◽  
Alix Stayton ◽  
Kenneth B. Wells ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Community Disaster Resilience

scholarly journals Partnerships for community resilience: perspectives from the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience project

Public Health ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 129 (9) ◽  
pp. 1297-1300 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.C. Chi ◽  
M. Williams ◽  
A. Chandra ◽  
A. Plough ◽  
D. Eisenman
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Community Disaster Resilience

scholarly journals Public Health Efforts Can Impact Adoption of Current Susceptibility Breakpoints, but Closer Attention from Regulatory Bodies Is Needed

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. McKinnell ◽  
S. Bhaurla ◽  
P. Marquez-Sung ◽  
A. Pucci ◽  
M. Baron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Patient Safety ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Antimicrobial Susceptibility ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Susceptibility Testing ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing ◽  
Outreach Program

ABSTRACT Microbiological testing, including interpretation of antimicrobial susceptibility testing results using current breakpoints, is crucial for clinical care and infection control. Continued use of obsolete Enterobacteriaceae carbapenem breakpoints is common in clinical laboratories. The purposes of this study were (i) to determine why laboratories failed to update breakpoints and (ii) to provide support for breakpoint updates. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health conducted a 1-year outreach program for 41 hospitals in Los Angeles County that had reported, in a prior survey of California laboratories, using obsolete Enterobacteriaceae carbapenem breakpoints. In-person interviews with hospital stakeholders and customized expert guidance and resources were provided to aid laboratories in updating breakpoints, including support from technical representatives from antimicrobial susceptibility testing device manufacturers. Forty-one hospitals were targeted, 7 of which had updated breakpoints since the prior survey. Of the 34 remaining hospitals, 27 (79%) assumed that their instruments applied current breakpoints, 17 (50%) were uncertain how to change breakpoints, and 10 (29%) lacked resources to perform a validation study for off-label use of the breakpoints on their systems. Only 7 hospitals (21%) were familiar with the FDA/CDC Antibiotic Resistance Isolate Bank. All hospitals launched a breakpoint update process; 16 (47%) successfully updated breakpoints, 12 (35%) received isolates from the CDC in order to validate breakpoints on their systems, and 6 (18%) were planning to update within 1 year. The public health intervention was moderately successful in identifying and overcoming barriers to updating Enterobacteriaceae carbapenem breakpoints in Los Angeles hospitals. However, the majority of targeted hospitals continued to use obsolete breakpoints despite 1 year of effort. These findings have important implications for the quality of patient care and patient safety. Other public health jurisdictions may want to utilize similar resources to bridge the patient safety gap, while manufacturers, the FDA, and others determine how best to address this growing public health issue.

Incidentally Detected SARS-COV-2 Among Hospitalized Patients in Los Angeles County, August to October 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Tsai ◽  
Elizabeth Traub ◽  
Kymberly Aoki ◽  
Kelsey Oyong ◽  
Heidi Sato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Medical Records ◽  
Confidence Limit ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Hospital Discharges ◽  
Hospitalization Rates ◽  
Test Result

We aimed to determine the percentage of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations reported to Los Angeles County (LAC) Public Health that might have been misclassified because of incidentally detected SARS-CoV-2. We retrospectively reviewed medical records from a randomly selected set of hospital discharges reported to LAC Public Health from August to October 2020 for a clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 or a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result. Among the 13,813 discharges from 85 hospitals reported to LAC Public Health as COVID-19–associated hospitalizations from August to October 2020, 346 were randomly selected and reviewed. SARS-CoV-2 detection was incidental to the reason for hospitalization in 12% (95% confidence limit, 9%-16%) of COVID-19 classified hospital discharges. Adjusting COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates to account for incidental SARS-CoV-2 detection could help public health policymakers and emergency preparedness personnel improve resource planning.

Introduction and History of Public Health in Los Angeles County

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jonathan E. Fielding ◽  
Jonathan Freedman ◽  
Stephanie N. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
History Of Public Health ◽  
History Of
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