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Own the Emergency
How to Train Your Hospital AdministratorsThe Latest from SIW
Security prepares for largest presidential inauguration The security week that was: 11/21/08 Sources: Napolitano likely to be named DHS secretary TSA's 'behavior detection' draws scrutiny in light of few arrests Survey: National security a bigger issue prior to economic crisis Eye on Video: Specialized intelligent video applications
It is 8:30 on a Monday morning. You're a member of the management team at an urban hospital—a Level 1 Trauma Center—and it is your day to be the administrator-on-duty (AOD). You are in charge of the campus.
Like many urban Level 1 Trauma Centers, your hospital has several thousand employees on site, between 600 and 800 occupied beds, hundreds of visitors and dozens of vendors moving around the campus each day. Today, you are in effect operating as the mayor of a small town.
Shortly after your shift begins you receive a call from the police department. A major explosion has occurred in your city's main rail hub, and the police suspect terrorist involvement. They tell you to expect anywhere from 500 to 1,500 patients with burns and blunt force or blast-related injuries.
Are you ready to manage this crisis? In the past, your shifts as AOD have only required you to make relatively minor decisions. Have you ever prepared yourself for this level of critical decision making?
Although this scenario falls toward the high end of a disaster matrix, it is possible in today's world.
I was working on September 11, 2001, at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System's (NSLIJHS) Level 1 Trauma Center in the New York City area. The original notification from municipal agencies was that we should expect to receive a surge of 5,000 to 10,000 patients with varying injuries. The NSLIJHS had taken steps prior to 9/11 to enhance its emergency preparedness plans and had begun training its employees in CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive) emergencies. But nothing could have prepared anyone for the events of that day. I'm sad to report that we received few survivors at the hospital after the tragedy.
The senior leadership of our organization seized upon this event as an opportunity to better prepare itself for emergencies of any type.
