Healthcare Emergency Management

Communities across the United States have been responding to and/or preparing for emergencies for centuries. Long before the end of the Cold War, America's hometowns have been faced with peril and catastrophe. The twentieth century heralded an even higher impact on our need to prepare and train for large scale emergencies or disasters. Beginning on September 11, 2001 and reasserted during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, Irene and Sandy the need in this country to ensure our healthcare systems, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other medical providers are educated, trained, exercised and prepared for any large scale medical surge emergency became tantamount to our collective success. Healthcare entities across the United States are not equipped singly to respond to large scale disasters and must be innovative, collaborative and steadfast in their endeavours to create a system of surge capacity that is focused, conducted well in advance of any emerging disaster situation, financeable and sustainable long-term - the system is known as the Healthcare Coalition. As planners contemplate exceeding daily system capacities and capabilities the work becomes focused on "business unusual", practicing medical surge response in less than favourable conditions. This course will provide the tools and insights to strengthen capacities and capabilities for emergency response, which in turn will provide better outcomes for patients, more confidence for staff and a more cohesive response system. Finally, this course will increase the odds that the healthcare entity will remain in business following a large scale disaster.