Emergency Preparedness

About Emergency Preparedness

It’s time to change the way California thinks about disaster response. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that hospitals can quickly mobilize to provide flexible approaches to patient care during a disaster. The state must draw upon these lessons to prepare differently so the next crisis will be less severe. Given California’s size and complexity, the health care disaster response system of the future must be nimble enough to respond to any catastrophe. View more information on hospital disaster preparedness.

Preparing for Pediatric Disaster Victims

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation provides valuable insight into pediatric disaster planning and response and highlights three new resources – a family preparedness activity, a pediatric decontamination picture book, and a virtual training workshop covering many pediatric disaster scenarios.

Artificial Intelligence: Tools, Ethics and Risks, Changes Coming

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation outlines free AI tools and how to use the tool to write, solve problems, translate, and generate images of accident or injury scenes. Using scenarios from risk, health and safety, and emergency management, you’ll learn how to save time so you can do something else in the world of disaster planning.

Using Microsoft Teams in Hospital Incident Command

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation reviews ways to integrate any HICS document directly into Microsoft Teams and instantly share it with your entire organization. Learn ways to take advantage of the Microsoft Teams platform to facilitate the exchange of data as a turnkey command center solution.

Building Relationships in a Health Care Coalition

2024 Disaster Conference

When disaster strikes, help can come from unlikely sources. Active participation in a health care coalition provides hospitals the opportunity to grow and cultivate relationships before disaster strikes. This presentation will present four different examples of how strong, preexisting relationships proved crucial during emergencies, benefiting both the hospital and the community at large.

Fundamentals of Radiation Protection

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation aims to educate a diverse audience of hospital workers and professionals from various sectors on the principles of radiation safety. It covers historical developments, current regulatory standards, and best practices for minimizing occupational radiation exposure. The session will detail types of radiation, measurement units, and protective equipment, emphasizing the ALARA principle and current epidemiological findings. Additionally, the presentation will discuss OSHA standards, health effects from radiation exposures, scatter radiation related to pregnancy, and radiation in the military, airline, and manufacturing industries.

Trust: The Secret Ingredient

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation explores the importance of trust in creating and maintaining connected, collaborative relationships and high performing teams. Learn about trust inventory and its importance in building or repairing trust, understand the difference between trust and psychological safety, and how they influence each other, and how to apply the trust framework to a working relationship to identify specific issues and develop the best approach for rebuilding trust with that person.

Maui’s on Fire! The Coalition’s Emergency Response

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation explores the response of Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management to the catastrophic Maui wildfire. The session outlines strategies and actions implemented to manage the crisis, including coordination efforts and resource deployment, highlighting the importance of preparedness and effective emergency management in mitigating the impact of natural disasters on health care systems.

SNF Evacuation: Exercising and Responding as a Health Care Coalition

2024 Disaster Conference

This session presents lessons learned from the Golden Hills Post Acute Care evacuation of 88 SNF residents and 22 sub-acute patients due to severe storm damage to their building. The session reviews how the facility coordinated with local SNFs, prioritized load leveling, and supported facilities receiving patients with Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDRO’s). Learn how Sharp HealthCare’s Coronado campus, having practiced full facility evacuations, effectively received evacuees, demonstrating exceptional compassion and resourcefulness.

Hazard Vulnerability Assessments in Climate Change Preparedness

2024 Disaster Conference

This presentation reviews Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA) categories associated with climate change and proposes ways hospitals can plan for the risks associated with climate change. The session explores current and anticipated interdependencies between multiple hazard categories in California, as well as the typical timeline of HVA methodology.