Through the collaborative preparedness efforts between the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare and the seven Public Health Districts, each community in Idaho is prepared to receive and distribute the medicines and supplies shipped from the Strategic National Stockpile.
In the event of a public health emergency, necessary resources at the state and local level may become quickly depleted. In an attempt to counter this depletion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) houses large quantities of emergency medical supplies (i.e. antibiotics, antidotes, antitoxins, etc.) in numerous strategic locations throughout the U.S.
These locations are designed to provide unique, rapid responses (sometimes as quickly as 12 hours after request) to areas that demonstrated the need for the supplies and requested them from the CDC.
Points of Dispensing (PODS)
If the supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) are ever needed in Idaho, each Public Health District (PHD) will supply its region with access to medication by using Points of Dispensing, or PODs. These PODs have the ability to be set up quickly and require many trained volunteers, but ultimately focus on getting Idahoans the medications or supplies they need as quickly as possible.
- The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) and the Idaho PHDs will announce when the PODs will open and will provide details about where the sites will be located throughout the affected area
- Federal, state, and local authorities are working together to ensure that sufficient supplies of SNS medicines will arrive quickly in an emergency and be available for everyone who needs them
- Medicines given at the PODs are free
