Triple Play Exercise to be Featured on Rand Website

Late last year, when the federal Department of Health and Human Services asked states across the country to participate in a project evaluating the design of public health preparedness exercises, the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHP&R) knew exactly what it wanted to submit – Triple Play.

Triple Play, which took months to design and was carried out over a three-month period in 2003, was recently selected by the RAND Corporation — the company selected by DHHS to evaluate the exercises — as a showcase example on its website for others to follow. Although still in development and not yet accessible, RAND officials notified PHP&R in August that Triple Play will be featured in a new section of its website that will serve as a clearinghouse for drills, orientations, tabletop exercises, functional exercises and full-scale exercises previously conducted across the country. The website will also include other resources developed by RAND as part of its contract with the federal Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness.

Warehouse staff

Triple Play was a three-part bioterrorism preparedness field and tabletop exercise held in October, November, and December of 2003. The first phase of the exercise focused on detecting a disease outbreak, investigating and identifying the disease agent, and requesting federal resources. The second two phases focused on receiving and distributing medical supplies from Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) Push Packages and developing protocols for isolation and quarantine. Several North Carolina local health departments and state agencies participated in the exercise, including DHHS, the Division of Emergency Management (NCEM), and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DA&CS). The event provided an important training opportunity for agency staff members and helped test the state’s emergency plans and tools.

The three main goals defined for the exercise were:

1. Involve as many levels of government and organization as possible.
2. Exercise with maximum realism and minimum artificiality.
3. Identify weaknesses in planning, training, and organization.

Triple Play, however, isn’t the first North Carolina public health preparedness effort to be recognized by the RAND Corporation. In April, RAND — which describes itself as the world’s most trusted source of objective health policy research — recognized North Carolina’s creation and develop of Public Health Regional Surveillance Teams (PHRSTs) to facilitate local public health preparedness and response as an exemplary practice.

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Last Modified: September 1, 2005