Strengthening emergency preparedness through collaborative partnerships, realistic exercise design, and data-driven readiness assessments.
In partnership with the Navajo Nation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Exercise Division (NED), Cadmus’ health security subject matter experts assessed emergency planning, communication, and coordination capabilities and designed a full, graduated exercise series to evaluate pandemic logistics preparedness and response. A critical component of public health response is the ability to request and distribute medical countermeasures (MCM) including medicines, medical supplies, and medical devices from the federally maintained Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). While SNS assets are typically received and distributed by states, Tribal Nations can directly request supplies due to their sovereignty. The Navajo Nation required support assessing its ability to manage SNS distribution during public health emergencies when immediate resources may be limited. Once received, these supplies must go to those most in need, such as hospitals and healthcare facilities, presenting both coordination and logistics challenges. Professionally designed exercises allow jurisdictions to test these capabilities under realistic conditions, identify gaps, and strengthen readiness before a real emergency occurs. Cadmus supported the Navajo Nation in enhancing readiness for SNS MCM distribution in several key ways, as outlined below.
- Collaborate with tribal and state partners. The Navajo Nation is the largest Tribal Nation in the country spanning multiple states, and includes remote, hard-to-reach communities, making coordinated emergency response and resource distribution challenging. To address this, our team established exercise planning committees with Navajo Nation leadership and emergency planners from Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. These committees created a structured forum for tribal leaders and state officials to build partnerships, discuss pandemic response strategies, and strengthen coordination for SNS distribution.
- Leverage actionable data. As part of the exercise series, Cadmus helped the Navajo Nation assess and demonstrate key community preparedness capabilities, including medical supply distribution, emergency operations coordination, and delivery of public information and warnings. Using existing preparedness and capability data enabled the Navajo Nation to identify gaps in logistics management capabilities, highlighting the need for additional support if an incident occurs.
- Review, revise, and validate plans. Cadmus assisted the Navajo Nation to set the foundation of logistics preparedness by helping develop emergency response and operations planning materials, including a revised MCM plan with detailed procedures for receipt, staging, and storage of SNS supplies and equipment. Cadmus also helped the Navajo Nation revise their emergency operations plan to reflect a clearer understanding of response capabilities, including interagency communication and emergency response staffing. Following the graduated exercise series, Cadmus developed an after-action report highlighting best practices and areas for improvement. These insights enabled the Navajo Nation to validate and update multiple planning and guidance documents and further strengthen partner relationships.
