|
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, November 3, 2003
Contact:
Thurston County Health Officer, Diana T. Yu, MD, MSPH (360) 786-5581
Thurston
County Medical Reserve Corps Receives DHS grant
OLYMPIA
-- The Thurston
County Public Health and Social Services Department is one of 125 agencies
nationwide to receive a Department of Health & Human Services Medical
Reserve Corps Grant for 2003-2004.
Two other agencies from Washington State were also successful in
obtaining the federal grant; the Snohomish County Emergency Management
Department and the Spokane County Medical Society Foundation.
Thurston
County Health Officer Dr. Diana Yu says,
“We have been working on improving urgent communication with health
care providers and having additional capacity to conduct public health work,
especially during larger scale threats to the public health and other
emergencies.
The systems we set up will be shared with other communities across the
nation. We
already have a group of health care providers in Thurston County that have
served as the Medical Community Bioterrorism Response Team since October of
2001. This
group will transition into the Thurston County Medical Reserve Corps.”
The
$50,000 award, renewable for three years, will fund a part-time project
coordinator who will work closely with the Thurston County Health Officer and
the regional public health response team.
| 