Executive SummarySince the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, homeland security and emergency response communities have increasingly focused on planning for disaster medical surge capacity-the capacity of the health care system to respond to a large influx of patients after a disaster. The ability to ensure adequate numbers of medical staff represents a crucial part of the medical response to any disaster. However, healthcare worker absenteeism during disasters, especially in the event of an attack of biological terrorism or an epidemic, such as pandemic influenza, is a serious concern.Though a significant rate of absenteeism is often included as a baseline assumption in emergency planning, published reports on strategies to minimize absenteeism are comparatively few. This report documents interviews with managers and emergency response planners at hospitals and public health agencies and reviews existing survey data on healthcare worker absenteeism and studies of disasters to glean lessons about the needs of healthcare workers during those disasters. Based on this research, expected rates of absenteeism and individual determinants of absenteeism are presented along with recommendations of steps that hospitals, emergency medical services organizations, public health organizations, and government agencies can take to meet the needs of healthcare workers and minimize absenteeism during a biological event.v
AcknowledgmentsThis work was conducted in support of the Interagency Biological Restoration Demonstration, a collaborative regional program jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Defense-Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designed to develop policies, methods, plans, and applied technologies to restore large urban areas, DoD installations, and critical infrastructure following the release of a biological event.