Measuring Preparedness for Public Health and Health Care Emergencies: The Current State of Preparedness Metrics in the United States and Considerations for the Future

To help the federal government and state, Tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) jurisdictions better prepare for emergencies, there is a need to understand how prepared different jurisdictions are for various emergencies. However, assessing whether a jurisdiction is prepared for different emergencies is inherently complex and there is a lack of consensus among practitioners and scholars on how to approach preparedness measurement. This study addresses 1) the current state of metrics for public health and health care preparedness in the United States, including gaps in existing metrics and limitations of existing metrics identified during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2) strategies to potentially improve measurement of public health and health care preparedness and address the gaps and limitations in current metrics.