FY 2021 Regional Disaster Health Response System | EP HIT 21 003

Opportunity Information: Apply for EP HIT 21 003

The FY 2021 Regional Disaster Health Response System (RDHRS) grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number EP HIT 21 003) is a cooperative agreement offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). It was created in response to repeated lessons from major disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic: even well-prepared communities can quickly become overwhelmed when a crisis disrupts normal health care operations, stretches staffing and supplies, and forces hospitals to manage sudden spikes in patient volume. The overall purpose of the program is to close persistent gaps in disaster health care delivery by building a more unified, scalable, and clinically grounded system that can operate across state lines and across a broad region when local capacity is exceeded.

At the center of the opportunity is ASPR's RDHRS model, described as a tiered regional system that strengthens and connects existing health care and emergency response assets rather than replacing them. The idea is to bring the operational expertise of health care systems, including hospitals and specialty care networks, directly into existing preparedness and response structures at local, state, and regional levels. This approach is meant to improve disaster readiness across the health care system as a whole, expand medical surge capacity, and ensure access to specialty services that become critical in large-scale events, including trauma care, burn care, and infectious disease management. In practical terms, the RDHRS concept is meant to help regions coordinate clinical strategy and resource movement during catastrophic events, so care delivery can continue even when normal systems are strained or broken.

The RDHRS is designed to complement and build on the Medical Surge Capacity and Capability (MSCC) foundation and other established local or sub-state medical response structures, such as trauma systems and Health Care Coalitions (HCCs). HCCs are partnerships that typically bring together hospitals, emergency medical services, public health, and emergency management so they can plan together and coordinate during emergencies within a local area. This funding opportunity emphasizes that RDHRS sites should not disrupt these local mechanisms; instead, RDHRS is meant to add a higher level of coordination and capability at the statewide and regional tiers. That includes improving coordination mechanisms across jurisdictions, integrating specific clinical and administrative capabilities that are difficult to sustain locally, and strengthening the ability to operate across multiple states when a disaster footprint is broad.

A key point in the program description is that RDHRS is not intended to alter everyday patient referral patterns or routine health care delivery. Under normal circumstances, patients should still flow through the usual networks. The RDHRS is meant for exceptional situations where catastrophic events overwhelm existing referral patterns and the health care system's baseline capacity and capabilities. In those moments, the RDHRS framework helps define how clinical care should be delivered when the region must take extraordinary measures, such as redistributing patients across a wider geography, importing resources from outside the affected area, or applying resource utilization guidelines when demand outpaces supply. This reflects a focus on crisis-scale operations: keeping care organized, clinically appropriate, and ethically grounded when the usual playbook no longer works.

The opportunity also highlights several core regional functions RDHRS sites are expected to support. These include building surge capacity at statewide and regional levels, strengthening situational awareness (so decision-makers can understand real-time conditions across facilities and jurisdictions), developing readiness metrics (so the system can measure preparedness in concrete ways), and running capability testing exercises (so plans are validated under realistic conditions rather than assumed to work on paper). The broader intent is to mature multi-state partnerships and incorporate industry and government assets into a single, integrated regional approach, creating a more coherent disaster health care system that can scale rapidly and provide specialized clinical support during major disasters or public health emergencies.

From an administrative standpoint, this was a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement, meaning the federal agency typically remains substantially involved in the funded work compared to a standard grant. The CFDA number listed is 93.817, and the funding activity category is Health. The posting lists an award ceiling of $3,000,000 and an expectation of one award. The opportunity was posted on August 18, 2021, with an original closing date of September 20, 2021. Eligibility is noted as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," indicating that applicants would need to consult the full announcement for the specific eligible entity types and any required partnership or regional structure.

In summary, this grant opportunity is about building a regional, tiered disaster health response capability that links and strengthens what already exists locally through HCCs and trauma systems, while adding the coordination, specialty care integration, and multi-state operational capacity needed for truly large-scale emergencies. The program aims to make health care delivery more resilient under extreme stress by improving regional planning, shared awareness, surge strategy, and tested operational readiness, without interfering with normal health care referral patterns except when a catastrophic event forces the system into extraordinary response mode.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2021 Regional Disaster Health Response System" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.817.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 18, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 20, 2021 No Explanation. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for EP HIT 21 003

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: