This award...allows us to close the distance between higher acuity regional centers and community hospitals while improving regional resilience and national surge capacity to future HCID and biothreat events.
Gabriela M. Andujar Vazquez, MDThe National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) recently awarded Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) a $500,000 grant to build its capabilities as a Level 2 Special Pathogen Treatment Center (SPTC). This grant will position DHMC as the only SPTC in northern New England (New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine).
SPTCs have the capacity to deliver specialized care to clusters of patients and serve as primary patient care delivery centers. Having this designation indicates that DHMC can care for patients throughout the duration of their illness. Nationwide, these designated facilities play a crucial role in NETEC’s National Special Pathogen System, which ensures safe, high-quality care across the U.S. for high-consequence infectious diseases (HCID), such as novel influenzas, MERS and Ebola.
“DHMC has been, and will continue to be, the leading institution capable of providing HCID care in New Hampshire and in northern New England,” said Gabriela M. Andujar Vazquez, MD, hospital epidemiologist at DHMC. “This award strengthens our position as a regional anchor of the National Special Pathogen System. It allows us to close the distance between higher acuity regional centers and community hospitals while improving regional resilience and national surge capacity to future HCID and biothreat events.”
This grant will support efforts to expand access to specialized care and strengthen readiness through activities such as staff training, equipment acquisition and the development of systems for effective HCID care delivery.
To learn more, visit netec.org/nsps.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.