The New River Valley Public Health Task Force has been selected by the Near Southwest Preparedness Alliance (NSPA) as the 2021 recipient of its Outstanding Partner Award.
This award is presented to an individual or organization that exemplifies outstanding service in regional healthcare emergency management. The task force was singled out for its highly effective, multi-discipline, “all-in-this-together” approach that led to greater regional healthcare preparedness in the face of COVID-19.
The New River Valley Public Health Task Force was formed in March 2020 as a collaborative effort to provide residents of Montgomery County, Giles County, Floyd County, Pulaski County, and the City of Radford with effective guidance about COVID-19 and other health issues. Specifically, the task force was recognized for sourcing local volunteers (including task force members) to staff local hospitals, utilizing emergency medical services, assisting with testing and vaccination clinics, working directly with employers to ensure that testing was “accommodated without being disruptive to healthcare,” and coordinating a community-wide message for critical COVID-19 information.
The task force draws members from five counties and includes law enforcement, local public health, local hospitals, business associations, local emergency management, public schools, local elected officials, and public information officers.
The New River Valley Public Health Task Force was responsible for drive-through testing events early in the pandemic and self-serve testing stations throughout the region; readily available personal protective equipment (PPE)PPE for hospitals and public safety infrastructure; large-scale vaccine clinics early in 2021; distribution of more than 369,000 branded, cloth masks across the region; a call center for testing and questions about COVID-19; a business continuity team; the “Working Safe Resource Guidebook” for businesses; safe and memorable high school graduations for five local school divisions in the spring of 2020; tabletop exercises for all local school divisions; the “Be committed. Be well” campaign; digital and bus ads, signs, banners, posters, social media and website content with campaign messaging and guidance; and six virtual town halls and a series of podcasts to address residents’ questions and concerns.
Organizations who participate in the task force organizations include LewisGale and Carilion hospitals and healthcare systems; New River Community College; Radford University; Virginia Tech; the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM-VA); the counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski, the City of Radford, and the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
Additional members include representatives from local law enforcement and first responder agencies, New River Valley Community Services, the New River Valley Regional Commission, local public school divisions, and area merchants’ associations and chambers of commerce.
The Near Southwest Preparedness Alliance supports “the healthcare infrastructure of Southwestern Virginia with disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation resources.” The NSPA is a coalition of hospital and healthcare leadership professionals who understand the critical nature of preparedness efforts during health crises to conduct business and facilitate patient care.
The Near Southwest Region includes the counties of Alleghany, Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Botetourt, Campbell, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Henry, Montgomery, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Pulaski, and Roanoke, and the cities of Covington, Danville, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Radford, Roanoke and Salem.
