Due to many crises being experienced by health care centers and for the future, emergency management schedules are increasingly becoming a significant part of the routine.
The pressure building on the health care system is terrible and overwhelming, taking into consideration climate change, catastrophic weather events, understaffing and workforce burnout, etc, and adding up to the mixture is the pandemic.
Hospitals Gear Up As Disaster Is Foreseen
One can only imagine, and it is fair enough to say that health care systems and hospitals are being tested to their highest measure.
Emergency management currently is known to play a very important role when it comes to health care systems and hospitals. The emergency management officers are seen sitting at the table in C-suites and Boardrooms and executives who are forward-thinking, to make sure the critical infrastructure, communication plans, and various essential functions are designed well and the health care centers are emergency prepared.
How big and complicated the world is, and can be, the industry is seen to be slowly transitioning to understand that one statement, in terms of low predictable disasters and emergencies, of a new kind. This was stated by Dr. Paul Biddinger, who is the chief preparedness officer at the Mass General Brigham, known to be situated in Boston.
If not such problems, then cyberthreats or unstable infrastructure or disruptions keep the industry going. The health care system is now referred to as a critical juncture. Due to the pandemic, it has been revealed that the health care systems and centers mainly cannot depend on public sector support. Dr. John Hick mentioned that there is no cavalry arriving. Dr. John Hick is known to be the medical director for emergency management/preparedness at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He adds that they have left everybody on their own now.
As a way to move forward, authors decided and agreed to place emergency management among the decision-makers, as Scott Cormier said, who is the vice president of emergency management. Alongside the board directors and senior leaders, they must be placed as they can convince the higher authorities to invest in a system like emergency management for places in the United States who are still having difficulty finding beds for infected patients, like in villages in Alaska.
Cormier added, what we have learned until now is that the supply-chain individual gives his all at his work when he is in his office with the supply-chain people and similarly, our leaders in nursing seem to work best when they are with their fellow nurses on their units, not just in management meetings, he said.
The vice president and chief physician executive at Houston Methodist, Dr. Robert Phillips mentioned that hospital staff burnout is a common thing and is at its peak all the time. He says it indeed is difficult to get nurses for critical care especially and take on extra responsibilities, Hick adds on.
To foster resilience now completely depends upon how one creates a reliable culture. Phillips mentioned as he suggests his fellow mates peek ahead and anticipate the stressful moments and events. He says, one does not develop a disaster plan during an ongoing disaster, and one does not develop a resiliency plan during an ongoing crisis either.
The pandemic sure did bring out some inequalities in the health care system and centers. The patient numbers were and are not always well-balanced, Biddinger mentioned. Especially in the underserved areas, there has been that fall down due to institutions have been closing down, which has been overwhelming. He says this cannot be the way a country moves forward. Crisis calls for, as they say, “all hands on deck. “
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.