Overcoming Healthcare Challenges & Finding Solutions
Catherine L. Feinman
October 30, 2019
The healthcare industry presents many challenges for emergency preparedness professionals. The
planning process for a major crisis involves numerous stakeholders, each with their own plans and
procedures. Emergency medical services and hospitals, in particular, are tasked with managing dynamic,
ever-changing environments that are difficult to predict. A medical surge could easily lead to shortages
in critical resources if mutual aid agreements, healthcare coalitions, and other collaborative efforts
are not already in place before disaster strikes.
The Value of Crisis Communications
Anthony S. Mangeri
October 23, 2019
The role of the emergency management systems is to bring calm to chaos. The role of the public information officer (PIO) is to disseminate information that is credible, accurate, and reliable. It is a critical component of the initial response to meet the informational needs of residents – trusted, credible information aids in bringing calm.
Overcoming Challenges of Hospital Preparedness Plans
Stephen Gibson
October 16, 2019
Transitioning from public sector emergency management for a large city to emergency management for a private sector hospital is not easy. The fundamentals of emergency preparedness are the same, but the hospital setting has unique challenges. Each day, there are different numbers of people within the hospital. Some days, the occupants exceed hospital capacity during normal operating conditions. There is no set vulnerable population as the demographics of the population changes hourly. Having a large turnover of people in the hospital because of appointments, outpatient surgeries, visitors, and vendors makes preparedness efforts more challenging.
The Early Years: Shaping a National Stockpile for Preparedness
Greg Burel
October 9, 2019
In today’s emergency response landscape, public health jurisdictions across the United States rely on the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) when incidents prove large enough or severe enough to deplete medicines and supplies needed to protect communities. In just 20 years, the SNS – now managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) – has grown to a $7 billion enterprise poised to respond to a variety of public health threats. These threats include anthrax, botulism, smallpox, plague, tularemia and viral hemorrhagic fevers, as well as emerging infectious diseases, pandemic influenza, natural disasters, and other chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents. Although predicting the future of any program is challenging, the SNS has evolved from humble beginnings to a formidable component of national security.
Opioid Epidemic & Narcan’s Unintended Consequences
Andrew R. Roszak
October 2, 2019
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency related to the opioid crisis. Indeed, overdoses and deaths from opioids have skyrocketed over the past decade. In 2017, deaths from opioids were six times higher than in 1999. Opioids impact the quality of life and longevity, as well as have tremendous social and economic impacts on communities throughout the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse costs over $78 billion per year.
