Hurricanes – Time to Review The Challenges
It's been awhile since we have had a hurricane season that actually produced hurricanes. I have pulled up a few posts from previous years that may have some value for [...]
You Can’t Save the World
I suppose all members of the medical field go in with some aspiration of "saving lives" during the course of their work. At some point we come to the realization [...]
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 [...]
How many people will learn to Scuba dive after a Cascadia?
I participated in the Cascadia Rising 2016 exercise to help add realism and stress. Not everyone appreciated the challenges and annoyances I caused but there was a method to the [...]
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 [...]