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 the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.