All Entries in the "Emergency management" Category
The weaving of NIMS and HICS for hospital emergency planners
If you follow the trail of the various and sundry presidential directives regarding emergency management training, the ultimate goal of the educational initiative is for each healthcare worker to have received at least the basics in incident command knowledge, with the focus being the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
The Hospital Emergency Incident Command System (HEICS) program was already [more]
Symposium coverage: Inoperable generators and resulting threats to life
Greetings from Las Vegas! Earlier today at the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium, former Joint Commission environment of care guru (and current man of the people) Dean Samet of Smith, Seckman, Reid covered changes in the way that hospitals are scored during surveys.
As a subset of this discussion, Dean was covering some examples of what might result in a finding of immediate threat to health (and safety), including a scenario of an emergency generator [more]
Symposium coverage: A call to arms with emergency preparedness
From the Las Vegas desert I bring you great tidings of opportunity.
Joe Cappiello’s presentation this morning at the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium revolves around a discussion of how we in healthcare can better integrate, cooperate, and thus be able to “respondetate” more effectively with our community partners.
As part of a quick recap of the latest H1N1 developments (basically we’re in a very close monitoring situation), Joe touched on the topic [more]
Symposium coverage: Give a wide embrace to EM.01.01.01
Think beyond just police and fire departments when you consider collaborating with community partners, said Joseph Cappiello, chair of Cappiello & Associates in Elmhurst, IL, who spoke at the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium today.
Joint Commission emergency management standard EM.01.01.01 requires the hospital to engage with community partners in developing the medical facility’s hazard vulnerabilty analysis (HVA). Be sure to include your vendors in that discussion because they are appropriate parties to help you determine HVA results, Cappiello said.
Dark cloud, silver lining for H1N1
Well, the H1N1 swine flu panic seems to be subsiding somewhat, though I have no doubt that many of you are still managing the worried well to one degree or another (please let us know how you’re doing – shoot me a message on the blog, it’s your community and we want to know you’re keeping the faith).
That said, I have the good fortune this week to be spending some time in the Orlando area and I think there may be a bit of silver lining [more]
At this point, it’s an unfair conclusion to say hospitals aren’t prepared for pandemics
Hi, it’s Scott Wallask, and boy do I feel for all of you putting in long hours because of the swine flu outbreak. A safety director at a hospital system in Columbus, OH, summed it up to me in a few words: “We are swamped.”
It sounds like some hospitals are teetering on the brink of being overrun with patients, many of whom ironically aren’t infected with H1N1 but think they might be. There was a hell of an article in the Los Angeles Times this morning discussing some of these plights.
However, I take issue with one of the overriding themes of the article, that being [more]
Don’t wing it with family support during an emergency
In terms of Joint Commission requirements for family support during emergency responses (see EM.02.02.07), it’s a Pandora’s Box.
The Joint Commission identifies potential family services to include, but not be limited to, child care, elder care, and communicating with relatives.
Once again, the key is [more]
Relaying patient information to third parties during an emergency
The possibility exists during community emergencies (or potential swine flu outbreaks, hmmmm) that your organization will need to pass along sensitive data about patients to outside entities.
EPs 11 and 12 under Joint Commission standard EM.02.02.01 require that [more]
Swine flu cases grab the attention of emergency planners
Hi, it’s Scott Wallask. For those who haven’t bookmarked it yet, check out the CDC’s web page on the swine flu investigation, as it features the latest recommendations for healthcare facilities.
I was talking to an emergency planner at a Pittsburgh-area health system today about the swine flu situation, and he told me he is holding daily meetings with hospital and community reps from infection control, administration, physicians, corporate communications, human resources, county public health, the local school of public health, and others.
How to start communicating with other hospitals under EM.02.02.01
When it comes to emergency communication under Joint Commission standard EM.02.02.01, an important piece to consider is how you communicate with other healthcare organizations in the contiguous geographic area.
So, the first step is to [more]
