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Public Health Preparedness Lags In Kansas

A new report on the nation's public health preparedness finds Kansas tied with Montana for last place.

The report from the non-profit Trust For America’s Health is based on 10 measures of readiness for a public health emergency, such as bioterror, extreme weather, and disease outbreaks. Kansas met only three of the ten standards.

This comes on the heels of another report about a month ago from the charitable group, Save The Children. It found that Kansas failed to meet all four of their measures of preparedness for disasters affecting children.

Both reports say Kansas needs better policies for evacuation of child care facilities in the event of a disaster.

Spokeswoman Miranda Steele says the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is hoping to incorporate many of the recommended standards in the next update of their regulations.