Point of Dispensing (POD) Program

Information
Guidelines for the Dispensing of Medical Countermeasures to City of Portland Employees and Households in a Public Health Emergency

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) is a federally funded program designed to enhance the health and medical preparedness in the nation’s largest cities and metropolitan areas. Through the CRI, state and local health departments have developed plans to respond to a large-scale public health emergency or bioterrorist event by dispensing medical countermeasures to the entire population of the impacted city within 48 hours. Multnomah County Health Department (MCHD), which is tasked with public health issues within the City of Portland, administers this program.

To assist in the rapid distribution of antibiotics and other related medical countermeasures to the population, MCHD has created the Push Partner Registry (PPR). The PPR consists of private businesses and nonprofit and government organizations, such as the City of Portland (City), who have registered and agreed to dispense medical countermeasures to their employees, employee’s families and under some circumstances, clients.