At a Push Partner POD...
employees and their family members would come to the designated business location to receive medications in the event of a widespread public health emergency, such as an aerosolized anthrax attack. Educational materials about the disease, agent, and medications would be provided by the health department.
At a Push Partner POD, the health department would be “pushing out” medications for local business partners to help distribute to their employees instead of “pulling” people to stop what they are doing to go to a local public site in the community to receive medications.
Taking the medications provided by the health department in a large scale public health emergency is voluntary. Only in a large-scale life-threatening public health emergency would the local, State, and National health departments recommend mass distribution of antibiotics to the public outside of the normal medical practice. You may still want to contact your primary care physician for further information and directions after being given emergency medications at a Push Partner POD to address any concerns.
Businesses may choose whether or not to have family members come to the business site to obtain their medications or have their staff take the medications home to their families and then return to work.
If it is not convenient for staff and their families to come to the business location they would be instructed to go to a public POD in their community.
Some businesses may even choose to open their location to the public and serve as a public Point of Dispensing. However, no business is obligated to do so.