Staging Normally Sucks
In the later stages of my career I was volunteer as a paramedic/fire-fighter on a combination paid/volunteer fire department. We also did first response medical. Personally towards the end of [...]
Memorable Calls – My First Run as an EMT
This is the first in a series on emergency calls that have stuck in my head after all this time. After a couple decades in the field it's an odd [...]
Compliance or Enhanced Preparedness? The Real Impact of the New CMS Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the Emergency Preparedness Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participating Providers and Suppliers rule. Tipping the scales at 651 pages there is no [...]
Organizational Couch Potatoes – A False Sense of Preparedness
I was rummaging through some old files the other day and I came across my copy of the After Action Report (AAR) for Quakex97. This was a joint local, state [...]
HICS – Incident Action Planning (IAP) Made Easy
I can’t tell you how many events and exercises I’ve been involved in and when I inquire about their planning efforts I am told “we’re too busy to plan”. The [...]
What’s Preparedness Worth? Is $3.5 Million Enough?
My experience has always been that preparedness is a tough sell. The value seems to go up after there has been an event and a bad outcome was a result. [...]
Medical Rapid Response Team – Ideal for Catastrophic Events
I've been involved in planning for a Cascadia earthquake/tsunami event and a New Madrid earthquake event so I know what a catastrophe will look like. I have not been involved [...]
Hospital Decontamination Operations – Documentation
My recommendation is to take the time to put together an operations manual that covers your entire Hospital Emergency Response Team (HERT) program. This will keep all the important [...]
Hospital Decontamination Operations- Training
If your staff attend a training session such as the one provided by the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) they learn the process of establishing and operating a decontamination corridor. I [...]
Hospital Decontamination Operations – Staffing
In my experience staffing is one of the biggest challenges hospitals face when trying to sustain a Hospital Emergency Response Team (HERT) program. Staff members get selected based upon their [...]