"Hospitals should take their disaster preparedness and their disaster drills seriously, and they should regularly go over those plans and make sure they've done a proper assesment of those policies. Don't think it can happen to you? It can, even a quiet town like Blacksburg."

-Scott Hill, CEO, Montgomery Regional Hospital, Blacksburg, VA

"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government or, for that matter, the state government will be able to step forward and come to their rescue at the final hour, will be tragically wrong...because there is no way that you can respond to every hometown in America at the same time."

-Michael Leavitt, Former US Secretary of Health and Human Services

"NIMS compliance activities for hospitals will be phased in over the next 2 years; compliance with the first set of activities outlined in the HRSA National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program guidance will be September 30, 2007."

-Albert H. Fluman, Acting Director, NIMS Integration Center DHS/FEMA