As the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact society, hospitals and healthcare systems are facing a myriad of challenges. Effective leadership is needed to ensure continued health care operations, access to critical medications and personal protective equipment, and overall viability of the health care system. The hospital incident command system (HICS) was designed decades ago to provide a decision-making framework to manage incidents and disasters. Now, more than ever, health care systems are relying on HICS to help meet the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
In this episode, Domestic Preparedness Advisor Andrew Roszak explores how Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas is using HICS to help keep their more than 16,000 employees informed, protected and safe during this public health crisis. Roszak is joined by: Dr. Brent Kaziny, who is director of all hazards preparedness and response for the Section of Emergency Medicine and serves as the medical director of emergency management and co-chair of the Emergency Management Committee; and by James Mitchell, who is the director of organizational resilience.
Video of this podcast can be found at https://youtu.be/DmartiNQvZo
Texas Children’s Hospital
Texas Children’s Hospital, a not-for-profit health care organization, is committed to creating a healthier future for children and women throughout the global community by leading in patient care, education and research. Consistently ranked as the best children’s hospital in Texas, and among the top in the nation, Texas Children’s has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthroughs in pediatric and women’s health. The hospital includes the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute; the Feigin Tower for pediatric research; Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, a comprehensive obstetrics/gynecology facility focusing on high-risk births; Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus, a community hospital in suburban West Houston; and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, the first hospital devoted to children’s care for communities north of Houston. The organization also created Texas Children’s Health Plan, the nation’s first Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) for children; has the largest pediatric primary care network in the country, Texas Children’s Pediatrics; Texas Children’s Urgent Care clinics that specialize in after-hours care tailored specifically for children; and a global health program that is channeling care to children and women all over the world. Texas Children’s Hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine.
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Andrew R. Roszak
Andrew Roszak, JD, MPA, EMT-P, serves as the executive director for the Institute for Childhood Preparedness and as an advisor for the Domestic Preparedness Journal. He is the author of the Preparing for the Unexpected Series of books, which includes “Preschool Preparedness for an Active Shooter.” He has spent over 20 years working on emergency preparedness, response, and recovery issues. He is admitted to the Illinois and District of Columbia Bars and is admitted to the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. Find him on Twitter: @AndyRoszak.
Brent D. Kaziny
Dr. Brent D. Kaziny completed his medical degree at the University of Texas – Houston, School of Medicine. He started his pediatric intern year at Tulane University, where he received the Hurricane Katrina Code Grey Hero Award for his efforts caring for patients and assisting with the evacuation of Tulane Hospital during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After his intern year, he transferred to Baylor College of Medicine, where he completed his residency training in general pediatrics. After completing his fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, he took a position as an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. He has served as a subject matter expert on the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services curriculum development team for FEMA’s Pediatric Disaster Response and Emergency Preparedness Course and continues to serve as the medical director for this course teaching it across the country. On a national level, he serves as the co-director of the disaster domain for the Emergency Medical Services for Children – Innovations and Improvement Center. At Texas Children’s Hospital, he works in the Emergency Center, is director of all hazards preparedness and response for the Section of Emergency Medicine, and serves as the medical director of emergency management and co-chair of the Emergency Management Committee. He was actively involved in Texas Children’s Hospital’s response to Hurricane Harvey and continues to be involved in ongoing efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
James A. Mitchell
James Mitchell has served at Texas Children’s Hospital for five years and is the director of organizational resilience. His responsibilities encompass emergency management, business continuity and enterprise risk. The past few months, he has been heavily involved with a historic pandemic response at Texas Children’s, which involved a 140+ day activation of their incident command system as well as a large-scale response to some of the worst regional flooding ever to occur in the United States caused by Hurricane Harvey. Prior to 2020, he led his team and organization in increasingly complex and more realistic exercises culminating in the development and execution of a series of large-scale, multi-agency active shooter and mass casualty exercises that can be seen in the videos linked below. Prior to Texas Children’s, he held roles at global companies such as BP (energy) and Invesco (investments) focused on development and integration of new teams and processes with responsibility for IT disaster recovery, crisis management, and business continuity.
