Mass Violence

Mass Violence / en Sat, 26 Apr 2025 14:59:09 -0500 Mon, 24 Feb 25 16:01:37 -0600 AHA issues statement in response to shooting at a Pennsylvania hospital /news/headline/2025-02-24-aha-issues-statement-response-shooting-pennsylvania-hospital A shooting at UPMC Memorial Hospital Feb. 22 in York, Pa., left the suspected gunman and a police officer dead and injured others, according to multiple outlets. AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack Feb. 23 issued the following <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7299479157090959360">statement</a> in response: &nbsp;&nbsp; “We are deeply mourning the tragic loss of life in yesterday’s horrific hospital shooting at UPMC. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and the entire UPMC community. Hospitals are sanctuaries of healing, where dedicated nurses, physicians, and other team members work tirelessly to care for patients. We cannot allow these types of violent acts to persist. As a nation, we must unite and take decisive action to end this relentless cycle of violence.”&nbsp; Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:01:37 -0600 Mass Violence New AHA resources for managing public health emergencies /news/headline/2024-09-06-new-aha-resources-managing-public-health-emergencies The AHA has released five new <a href="/aha-clear/tipsheets">tip sheets</a> designed to fortify crisis leadership competencies during emergency events such as cyberattacks, natural disasters and mass violence incidents. Part of the <a href="/aha-clear">Convening Leaders for Emergency and Response</a> initiative’s resources, all tip sheets highlight best practices and practical insights from health care leaders for navigating a public health crisis. Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:40:31 -0500 Mass Violence CLEAR Crisis Leadership Tip Sheets /aha-clear/tipsheets Fri, 26 Jul 2024 10:38:24 -0500 Mass Violence DOJ extends support for health care resource center for mass violence victims /news/headline/2023-10-11-doj-extends-support-health-care-resource-center-mass-violence-victims The Medical University of South Carolina’s National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center Oct. 11 received an $8.9 million <a href="https://ovc.ojp.gov/funding/awards/15povc-23-gk-00555-aerx">grant</a>&nbsp;from the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime to continue to develop evidence-based best practices, training and other resources to help communities prepare to provide timely behavioral and mental health services to victims of mass violence incidents. As part of the three-year grant, AHA’s <a href="/hospitals-against-violence/human-trafficking/workplace-violence">Hospitals Against Violence initiative</a>&nbsp;will continue to work with the center to develop resources for hospital and health systems to support victims and communities impacted by mass violence incidents. The DOJ office provided funding to establish the center in fiscal year 2017. Wed, 11 Oct 2023 14:32:48 -0500 Mass Violence Remembering the Highland Park Mass Shooting: Reflections and Lessons in Emergency Preparedness /advancing-health-podcast/2023-09-15-remembering-highland-park-mass-shooting-reflections-and-lessons-emergency-preparedness The 2022 mass shooting during the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois killed seven people, wounded another 48 and traumatized an entire community. In this emotional conversation, Gabrielle Cummings, president of NorthShore Highland Park Hospital, discusses how the hospital team responded head-on to an unfolding crisis and kept not only the Highland Park community together, but the health care staff as well.This episode was produced through the <a href="/aha-clear" title="Convening Leaders for Emergency and Response (CLEAR)">CLEAR initiative</a>.<hr><div><a href="https://soundcloud.com/advancinghealth" target="_blank" title="Advancing Health">Advancing Health</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/advancinghealth/remembering-the-highland-park-mass-shooting-reflections-and-lessons-in-emergency-preparedness" target="_blank" title="Remembering the Highland Park Mass Shooting: Reflections and Lessons in Emergency Preparedness">Remembering the Highland Park Mass Shooting: Reflections and Lessons in Emergency Preparedness</a></div>&nbsp;<details class="transcript"><h2 title="Click here to open/close the transcript.">View Transcript &nbsp;</h2>00;00;00;29 - 00;00;25;04 Tom Haederle The senseless and tragic mass shooting during the Highland Park, Illinois 4th of July parade in 2022 killed seven people, wounded another 48, and shocked and traumatized an entire community. Highland Park Hospital played a pivotal role not only in treating the victims, but in managing the aftermath of an event that left many residents in disbelief that something like this could happen in their peaceful community.00;00;25;07 - 00;00;50;27 Tom Haederle The steps taken and guidance provided by hospital President Gabrielle Cummings described in this podcast played a big role in keeping not only the shaken Highland Park community together, but her health care staff as well.00;00;51;00 - 00;01;32;27 Tom Haederle Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the �� Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA Communications. In today's podcast, Highland Park President Gabrielle Cummings speaks with the AHA's Ben Wise about the importance of boosting morale, prioritizing staff wellbeing and cultivating resistance in the face of adversity and tragedy. This episode also highlights AHA's "Convening Leaders for Emergency and Response," or Clear Initiative, a funded partnership between the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and AHA’s Health Research and Educational Trust that is committed to fostering collaboration between health care and public health to strengthen our nation's emergency management systems.00;01;33;00 - 00;01;36;18 Tom Haederle With that, let's join Ben and Gabrielle.00;01;36;20 - 00;01;47;23 Ben Wise Gabrielle Cummings, thank you so much for being here with us today. I was wondering if you can maybe provide some background on the Highland Park community as well as the events that took place at that tragic 4th of July parade.00;01;47;26 - 00;02;11;25 Gabrielle Cummings Hi Ben and hi to everyone listening to the podcast. So the Highland Park community is a really tight knit community that sits in the northern suburbs of the Chicago land area. We have quite a few of the communities that surround Highland Park, like Highwood, Northbrook and a variety of other communities that are closely intermingled with the Highland Park community.00;02;11;28 - 00;02;37;28 Gabrielle Cummings There are a lot of different activities that happen here throughout the year, whether it be in downtown Highland Park for festivals or meetings or shopping. But Highland Park really is a tight knit community. I think what shook all of us was that the shooting that took place was during an event that was meant to really celebrate time to gather independence, friends and family and, you know, the middle of summer.00;02;37;28 - 00;02;52;24 Gabrielle Cummings And so it was a very challenging time for all of us, given how close the community is. Not just those of us that live in the community, but also those of us that work, because quite frankly, many of the employees that work at Highland Park Hospital or at North Shore e Age also live in the communities where they work.00;02;52;24 - 00;03;02;00 Gabrielle Cummings And so many of our physicians, nurses, other EBS team members also live in the community, are in close proximity to the Highland Park community.00;03;02;02 - 00;03;10;16 Ben Wise Would you mind taking me back to that moment and where you were when you when you learned about the shooting and maybe what some of your immediate next steps and actions were?00;03;10;18 - 00;03;32;12 Gabrielle Cummings Sure. So I don't live in Highland Park. I live in downtown Chicago. It was a holiday. So obviously on a holiday for most administrative leaders, you have the day off. As I jokingly tell people, I was enjoying my last few hours of free time before preparing to enter into checking emails and getting back into work. I was watching a TV series.00;03;32;12 - 00;04;00;19 Gabrielle Cummings I was excited because the last episode of just posted and as I sat on my couch to begin hitting play, I got a series of text messages from my operations leader on the campus. The first text message said to me, There is someone who's been shot that's coming to our hospital ED. And I knew at that moment that something wasn't right, because we don't receive very many penetrating trauma or gunshot wound victims at Highland Park Hospital.00;04;00;22 - 00;04;35;25 Gabrielle Cummings We did several years ago, but it was a very unique event. So when I received the first text, it put me on high alert. And then when I received the second and third text about more shootings and the fact that there was a shooter in the neighborhood, obviously that put me on beyond high alert. And I began to pull my team together over the phone so we could do a quick assessment of what was happening and put a plan in action to make sure we can mobilize support for the folks that were already on the campus while we took time to get there, because all of us were geographically dispersed.00;04;35;27 - 00;04;52;01 Gabrielle Cummings I was in downtown Chicago. One team member was doing a bike ride with her family. Another team member was at a family event. And so we had to come together and coordinate who could get to the hospital the fastest and who was going to take on what role until we got to the hospital.00;04;52;04 - 00;04;58;08 Ben Wise And how long do you think it took before you realized the magnitude of the situation or what fully had happened?00;04;58;11 - 00;05;25;05 Gabrielle Cummings You know, being on the phone and planning with my team, because we've done exercises like this as part of our emergency preparedness activities many times before. And when you're sitting in a conference room or doing an exercise with what we call inserts with the pieces of paper that your emergency preparedness team put in front of you to say that someone has arrived, you know, my mind was a little bit on autopilot in terms of what are the infrastructure components that we need to have set up and ready to go for the day.00;05;25;08 - 00;05;45;25 Gabrielle Cummings And so it was a little surreal still at that point. I think when I realized that this was a major event was what I was going the speed limit for downtown Chicago to Highland Park. I won't tell you how fast I was going, but when there were police cars passing me as if I was sitting still, it made me realize that this was a serious event.00;05;45;27 - 00;06;04;28 Gabrielle Cummings And then when I pulled in to the Highland Park neighborhood and made my customary left turn onto the hospital street and I saw police officers with assault rifles, long barreled guns out, I knew that it was a serious situation.00;06;05;01 - 00;06;19;00 Ben Wise I can't imagine that that sounds so intense. And I also think about the training and background that your employees have had. What were their immediate needs when you got there? What kind of things were you seeing?00;06;19;03 - 00;06;47;28 Gabrielle Cummings Yeah. So I think even before I showed up to the hospital, there were a lot of immediate needs that we needed to get into play. So that the benefit of Highland Park being the part of a larger system is that I had the knowledge, the support and the wisdom of a multitude of other hospital administrators and physician leaders and clinical leaders calling me, offering assistance and support, and setting up what we would call the large incident command.00;06;47;28 - 00;07;04;13 Gabrielle Cummings So control command, the part of incident command structure for those of us that are all in health care, that are dealing with the kind of higher level functions of what do we need to have ready to go, what resources do we need to get mobilized, what workforce we need to get in place? What do we need to do in terms of handling media?00;07;04;16 - 00;07;29;25 Gabrielle Cummings I was so fortunate to have a team of colleagues who came to my assistance and a), to form another incident command structure, which is called Area Command, so that they could focus on the higher level things while I was dealing with the activities on the ground here at Highland Park Hospital. And so those phone calls and conversations began as I was going the speed limit on the highway to Highland Park from downtown Chicago.00;07;29;27 - 00;07;52;20 Gabrielle Cummings When I arrived on site, my my operations leader was here first. She was closest. She was actually out on a bike riding her bike to the hospital. And, you know, hearing from her, the first thing that we needed to do is make sure that the emergency department had all the equipment and supplies that they needed because there were so many gunshot wound victims in the emergency room.00;07;52;22 - 00;08;16;05 Gabrielle Cummings We had victims that had received injuries from ricochets from bullet fragments that occurred, from hitting the ground or hitting other parts of buildings. We had individuals that had injuries from glass flying all over the place. We quite frankly, had people who were here just terrified and mortified from being in the middle of a mass shooting. And so we needed to have a lot of X-ray equipment available.00;08;16;05 - 00;08;36;27 Gabrielle Cummings So we were focused on making sure that we had enough mobile x rays out and about to take care of people, making sure they had the basic medical supplies that they need to take care of the community and take care of the patients. So our number one concern was to make sure the emergency department and the clinical team in the ED had the equipment, the supplies, the support they needed to care for the patients.00;08;37;00 - 00;08;56;05 Gabrielle Cummings I arrived to the hospital campus about 20 minutes after my operations leader and my nursing lady was here. She actually my CNO was actually in the E.D. and went directly into nursing care. She was caring for patients and care for actually one of the most one of the most tragic patients that we had to care for that day.00;08;56;07 - 00;09;12;29 Gabrielle Cummings But when I got here, I then began to focus on...I had to try to fly out a little bit. So I flew out. I mean, I had to take an opportunity to fly higher and to think about, okay, my team is in the E.D., we're dealing with patient care. I need to now deal with what's happening outside of the city.00;09;13;02 - 00;09;43;09 Gabrielle Cummings So there were dozens of people in the parking lot of the hospital, family members asking questions about their loved ones. I'm sorry. And so I had to focus on one being strong for them and making sure that I created a sense of of safe space and peace for them while also being aware of the security risk. Because at that moment in time when I got here, the shooter was still on the loose.00;09;43;09 - 00;09;57;11 Gabrielle Cummings We didn't know where he or she was. We didn't know if it was a male or a female, but we didn't know where the person was. And so I had to think about I've got dozens of people in the parking lot concerned about their family members, but every one of these people is a security risk to this hospital.00;09;57;11 - 00;10;17;24 Gabrielle Cummings And I have to think about how do I make sure that I treat them with compassion, but also getting them screened for security threats. And so I have a wonderful public safety team. And our public safety team created a perimeter and created a screening process where we screened every person in the parking lot to get them to the hospital because it was it was July 4th.00;10;17;24 - 00;10;40;00 Gabrielle Cummings So it was a very warm summer day. And most clinicians and those of us on health care know that when it's a warm day and you have high stress situations, people can have a variety of different complex issues that take place. And so I needed to get people from outside of the hospital inside. So that was one of my first actions, was to take care of the individuals that were in the parking lot and get them screened and safely inside.00;10;40;00 - 00;10;59;22 Gabrielle Cummings And once we got them inside, we had volunteers, we had other patient advocates that were meeting with each of the individuals to let them know that we're trying to find out what's going on with their family members. And so that was that was step one for me. I then went into the mode of thinking about, okay, what other resources do we need to think about?00;10;59;22 - 00;11;33;12 Gabrielle Cummings So, you know, in the middle of the shooting, I still have a hospital full of patients and a hospital full of clinicians that are caring for patients that are in beds or family members that are coming here for other outpatient tests. So I had to then think about how do I what I need to do to lock down this campus? Because at this point, anyone walking in or out of this circumference of our campus could be the shooter or could be a victim of a shooting because we didn't know if he was going to come back to have round two or to do whatever it is that he wanted to do.00;11;33;12 - 00;11;56;00 Gabrielle Cummings And so my next line of thought was I needed to put the campus on lockdown and create an external perimeter around the campus where no one could come into the campus that wasn't clinically in need of care. So that was another key step that I took in short order after getting here. I don't know how long it took for us to figure that out, but that was something that we had to do quickly.00;11;56;02 - 00;12;16;06 Gabrielle Cummings Another strategy and tactics that I developed with my team was it was it was also what was a long day. So I got here about 10:30, 10:40 in the morning, and we were here until seven or 8:00 at night because a suspect was apprehended, I think until about seven or eight at night. And that's in the middle. You know, you have shift changes.00;12;16;06 - 00;12;34;27 Gabrielle Cummings You have family members or team members who need to go home to their families and take care of their loved ones. So I had to then decide from an HR perspective and a people's safety perspective, do I let my team members go home or do I ask them to stay and shelter in place? And obviously we followed direction from the city about sheltering in place.00;12;34;27 - 00;12;55;09 Gabrielle Cummings And we we did have some team members who elected to leave the campus and to go be with their families and their loved ones, which I completely understand. But there is a level of concern that you have as a leader with letting your team members leave. Right? You want them to be with you. You want them to be with their family members, but you also don't want them to get hurt because at that point we didn't know where the shooter was00;12;55;09 - 00;13;06;07 Gabrielle Cummings as I've said a number of other times, and I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. So that was another key component that we had to focus on and that I focused on in short order when I arrived.00;13;06;09 - 00;13;37;04 Ben Wise You know, it's so interesting to talk about, you know, this high functional support and setting up this incident or area command center. And it sounds like you're just you're in the moment, you're balancing these clinical needs, these security needs. And of course, as you're talking about and and showing the emotional needs of. If you could just tell us about how you and your fellow leadership staff addressed the emotional well-being of the staff, both during that long day and in the immediate aftermath that followed as well.00;13;37;10 - 00;13;40;19 Ben Wise How did you check in on them? How did you care for them?00;13;40;21 - 00;14;19;08 Gabrielle Cummings Yeah, so I think the day one, the 4th of July, you know, food always brings comfort. I think we didn't realize how much comfort food was bringing us, but there was a lot of food, right? A lot of chocolate bars, lunch snacks, water, hydration, etc.. Some people were eating, some people didn't. So I think the importance of having nutrients or nutritional food available was really important to providing people with just in time support, because at that point we were still in full fledged incident area command, but we weren't thinking about the emotional well-being of one another.00;14;19;08 - 00;14;48;18 Gabrielle Cummings We were thinking about the emotional well-being of the patients, of the family members, of the community, of the police officers that we all work with, and the paramedics that we all work with that were out there in the field taking care of the patients who were getting brought to our respective hospital campuses. I think just having open, honest dialog with one another and being in a room together and rounding together and respecting each other's roles and knowing that our roles changed every moment of every day.00;14;48;20 - 00;15;06;28 Gabrielle Cummings For those of you that are familiar with an incident command, at least in our structure, you have this whole theory that you break open your incident command box and you put on your vest that says, I'm the incident commander. And my team was following protocol and wanted to set that up. And I said, No, we don't have time to set up the box.00;15;07;05 - 00;15;24;03 Gabrielle Cummings And the phones and the vests. We need to focus on being out and about on the campus, making sure that the folks that are here taking care of patients, whether they be in the E.D., or on the floors, see us visible and know that they are leaders here. There are other colleagues here to support them and keep them keep them safe.00;15;24;07 - 00;15;40;11 Gabrielle Cummings How are you going to define safety that day? So the day of it was it was very much more just in the moment, blocking and tackling. How do we manage the media message, how do we handle what's happening with the community, how do we handle our team members to make sure that they have food if they want food?00;15;40;12 - 00;16;04;22 Gabrielle Cummings How do we handle that? The only members that are here on our campus and are really challenged with what's going on. We also had one patient who was severely injured and we had to to get that patient helo transported out of the campus. And so how do you handle a heliport transportation in a mass casualty incident? So that was the day of. The days after00;16;04;25 - 00;16;27;12 Gabrielle Cummings I think, you know, it was it was kind of surreal. It's surreal that it's already been a year. But we folks, we were laser-focused on the fifth and thereafter on making sure that the team members had plenty of support. And I can go into that now if you'd like me to, or we can save that for another segment of our conversation.00;16;27;17 - 00;16;36;09 Ben Wise No, no, please. I'm so interested. Both team support, team morale and how you observed that? Measured it. Fostered it? Yeah.00;16;36;11 - 00;17;14;03 Gabrielle Cummings Yeah. So in the days that followed, I knew when I was driving home that night that when I needed to make sure that I had support for myself as a leader because in order to support the rest of my team, I wouldn't be able to support them if I didn't have my own safety net. Right? So I, I maybe subconsciously, I immediately called people that are closest to me to get support and to have that safe place to land while I was driving home that day because I knew I had a long road, I and my colleagues in leadership had a long road ahead of us00;17;14;04 - 00;17;43;29 Gabrielle Cummings after we came back the days that followed. When I got my safety net and had my sister circle or my social circle there to support me and my family circle, their support me, I immediately thought about the fact that we needed to have as many emotional well-being counselors on site as possible. We needed to really create an environment where team members could get access to mental health support on site as well as virtual if they so choose chose.00;17;43;29 - 00;18;01;26 Gabrielle Cummings But it was important that the support was on site. So, in the days to follow for at least a solid two weeks across all shifts. Because even though there may have been people that weren't here that day, this kind of event really impacts everyone who's connected to the team members that are here and units connected to the community.00;18;01;26 - 00;18;26;26 Gabrielle Cummings And so I made sure that we had mental health counselors here multiple hours of multiple days, Monday through Sunday, so that they could be available on site. I also had the counselors walk with me on the floors because I realized that health care professionals are very strong people, and sometimes people see counseling as a sign of weakness when I think counseling is actually a sign of strength.00;18;26;29 - 00;18;46;16 Gabrielle Cummings And I realized that if I walked or if another leader walked with the counselors on the floors or in the hospital, that it created the safe space for individuals to say, okay, it's okay for me to talk to the counselor. I also was very intentional about telling my my colleagues and my team members in the hospital that I was actively going to go to counseling as well because this is going to impact me.00;18;46;18 - 00;19;17;14 Gabrielle Cummings And I think that that gave team members and other individuals permission to know that it's safe and it's not considered a failure or a sign of weakness to get help and support in that environment. We also launched at NorthShore before this event happened, a group called Rise, which stands for Resilience in Stressful Events. So our RISE Team members are comprised of mental health counselors, other team members that have gone through a very discrete training to help each other recover and deal with tragic and serious events.00;19;17;14 - 00;19;41;14 Gabrielle Cummings And so we had members of the Rise Team from all over our system come to Highland Park Hospital to be available to round in, to talk and to have decompression sessions. There were certain groups that wanted to have a decompression session with either a RISE member or a mental health counselor. Collectively, like our team, it was very important to them to have a decompression session as a collective team and to reflect and to heal together.00;19;41;17 - 00;20;06;15 Gabrielle Cummings There were other team members or other individual roles I can think distinctly of one of our public safety officers who wanted to have one-on-one time with a counselor by himself. And so what was important to me and to my team, to my colleagues and leadership, that we created a space where team members could access what they needed in a way that worked for them, not in a way that I thought was going to work for Gabriel or Buffy or Barb.00;20;06;15 - 00;20;23;01 Gabrielle Cummings That's my operations leader and Barb was my CNO and the way that's going to work for them. And so we did take feedback. We took just in time inside what we needed to do. One of the things that I learned is we needed to have a Spanish speaking mental health counselor, despite the fact that everyone on this campus can speak English.00;20;23;07 - 00;20;53;17 Gabrielle Cummings English is not the first language for everyone. And there were some of my team members who can converse in English, but they're most comfortable with their native tongue, which for this particular incident we needed to make sure that we had Spanish speaking mental health counselors available. We added Spanish speaking counselors to our rotation and towards us towards the latter half of our two week period after it was brought to our attention that there were some team members who felt more comfortable healing and talking and conversing in their first language.00;20;53;19 - 00;21;15;09 Ben Wise Really make sense that that these things would come up. And it sounds like you really were able to, to lead by example and address some of those kind of immediate concerns and and offer a lot of support and services for your staff as well as having some things in place. Fourteen months later, how would you describe kind of the long term recovery efforts and how are you all feeling today?00;21;15;11 - 00;21;38;23 Gabrielle Cummings Yeah, I think we were already a really close team at Highland Park Hospital and at NorthShore and now NorthShore. And so I think this event, it's just brought us closer together and just reaffirmed the importance of connection and knowing one another not just out of work level, but at somewhat of a personal level. And by personal level, I mean at least knowing people face-to-face.00;21;38;23 - 00;22;01;05 Gabrielle Cummings So I may not know how many children you have, but I know that you have children. And so I think as a leader, it's always been very important to me to connect with team members in a way that is deeper than just, Oh, that's an employee. Like, I want to know that's Lala EBS employee or that's Michael, our EBS employee, and know a little bit about their their personal background because a sense of connection is is important00;22;01;05 - 00;22;20;13 Gabrielle Cummings I think to leadership. I've learned actually quite a bit having one on one conversations with frontline team members versus hearing it secondhand to some of my leaders. And so I think, you know, we'd already, as I alluded to, created really strong connections and have really strong connections as a hospital campus. And so I think we're just closer today than we ever were.00;22;20;15 - 00;22;41;05 Gabrielle Cummings The other thing that was really important is we had really close connections with members of our community. And I'm not sure that things would have gone as smoothly that day if I didn't have a strong relationship with the mayor, with the fire chief, with the police chief, with other civic and community leaders who knew how to get to me and meet with them so we could deal with managing the situation just in time.00;22;41;07 - 00;23;11;00 Gabrielle Cummings And so the culture here is still really solid. It's really strong. I would say a year plus later, it's going to always be in our minds. It will always be with us. But it has made us stronger as a clinical team, stronger as people, and has really reinforced the importance of being here for our community in whatever way they need us to show up that day, that hour. The other thing I think that's important to share is unfortunately mass shootings are all too common in our country.00;23;11;02 - 00;23;34;11 Gabrielle Cummings You know, you can't watch TV without hearing about a mass shooting occurring almost every day. And there was a potential another event around the geography close to Highland Park Hospital that took place several months ago. And it generated a lot of anxiety with the team to have to get back in to kind of, you know, fight or flight mode, the fighting mode of just coming out of this maybe months ago.00;23;34;11 - 00;23;53;02 Gabrielle Cummings And so I think while we are strong and we are healing from it, it is always a wound that is there and that we're aware of. The one year anniversary was really important for all of us. It was very important to me and to my leadership team that we had a memorial event that was specifically focused on us as health care leaders and providers, right?00;23;53;02 - 00;24;19;27 Gabrielle Cummings There were a lot of different city events or external events which we attended and got involved in, but it was so critically important to have a time where we as health care leaders could get together and just emote, just allow our emotions to flow, to heal, to reflect as a care community that was here that day. And even folks that weren't here that day, but helped us do recovery and helped to manage situations over the phone if they weren't able to be here in person.00;24;19;27 - 00;24;40;27 Gabrielle Cummings But it was important that we got together as a collective health care community and we had a memorial ceremony for multiple shifts, like two or three shifts. I think. And we also commissioned a beautiful piece of artwork that is now installed in our healing garden outside of the campus that employees can go and reflect on and look at any time that they want.00;24;40;29 - 00;25;03;28 Gabrielle Cummings It's a beautiful memorial. It's a beautiful piece of artwork, but I think it created closure for us so that the team could heal and put that behind them and use that as a platform to grow and to continue to be strong. But if people want to go and reflect and remember what happened that day and what we did as a collective health care team that day, that they could go and have a safe place to reflect and remember.00;25;04;00 - 00;25;28;15 Ben Wise Well, I think that's fabulous. And I so appreciate you sharing all of this. I guess, you know, lastly, as a leader now who has been through this and gotten to work so closely with your community on on such a tragic event, what advice might you offer to other health care leaders in your position, both for preparing for mass casualty incidents and also supporting your workforce after this type of incident?00;25;28;17 - 00;25;49;02 Gabrielle Cummings Yeah, so I think a few things to share with my colleagues in the health care community. I always would laugh and joke with my emergency preparedness leaders about the, you know, the Sharknado drills. They would have us do that. We call them tabletops where we simulate an event, thought it was comical or it was kind of, Oh gosh, we got to spend 4 hours doing this.00;25;49;04 - 00;26;13;06 Gabrielle Cummings I would say to everyone on this podcast, please do your drills. The one thing I am certain of that made this event go so smoothly was for us the Highland Park Hospital and NorthShore is that we understood the emergency preparedness dynamic. We understood what Incident Command was. We understood what levers to push pull because of the number of drills and exercises we've done throughout our time in our years in the organization.00;26;13;06 - 00;26;46;24 Gabrielle Cummings So that's one key takeaway I would like to share with the groups. The second is please don't underestimate the importance of community connection, the importance of relationships with community leaders and fostering those relationships because they benefit you in more ways than you could ever imagine, in ways that you couldn't imagine at all. The other point I would love to to make for for leaders, especially for those that are in leadership positions, is that you need to take time to heal and acknowledge that you as a leader need to maintain strength in order to provide strength to others.00;26;46;26 - 00;27;04;28 Gabrielle Cummings Because if you don't, you could implode unintentionally. I distinctly remember my colleague Sean O'Grady saying to me about a week after kind of running 300 miles an hour was like break, you need to take some time off. And I'm like, I don't have time...I don't have time to take off work. I got to stay focused.00;27;05;00 - 00;27;28;12 Gabrielle Cummings But he knew that I needed some space to heal so that I didn't implode. And he was right because when I took time off, like all of the emotion started to come over me and I was reflecting and thinking about what I saw my team members faces, what I saw on the family members'faces. So as a leader, please take time to heal and acknowledge that healing and the importance of healing as a leader.00;27;28;14 - 00;27;47;08 Gabrielle Cummings And then the only other thing that I would would share is that unfortunately, I want folks to know that we are in a health care community that are here to serve and to take care of one another and know that you can always reach out to another hospital leader if you need help or support or insights on how you handle the situation00;27;47;08 - 00;28;11;06 Gabrielle Cummings during a mass shooting, I was really blessed and fortunate to be contacted by a number of health care leaders across the country who have been through similar things. They wrote me letters. They called me to offer their support and I say just thank you to all of those individuals, but also continue to be there for one another to help all of us get through these challenging these challenging times when it comes to having to recover from a mass incident or mass casualty.00;28;11;08 - 00;28;24;10 Ben Wise Gabrielle, thank you so much for your time today and your openness in our discussion. I know these are very difficult things to discuss and a very tough subject, and so your openness and honesty is so appreciated.00;28;24;18 - 00;29;07;04 Tom Haederle Presented as part of Cooperative Agreement five Hi tap 210047-02-00. Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, ASPR. The Health Research and Educational Trust, An �� Association 501c nonprofit subsidiary, is a proud partner of this cooperative agreement. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the health research and educational trust and its partners, and do not necessarily represent the official policies or views of the Department of Health and Human Services or of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.00;29;07;06 - 00;29;13;29 Tom Haederle Further, any mention of trade names, commercial practices or organizations does not imply endorsement by the U.S. government.</details> Fri, 15 Sep 2023 07:52:45 -0500 Mass Violence Hospitals Will Always Offer Healing and Hope as We Stand Up Against Violence /news/perspective/2023-03-03-hospitals-will-always-offer-healing-and-hope-we-stand-against-violence Ninety-five. That’s the number of mass shootings that have occurred in the United States during the first two months of this year, according to the <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/" target="_blank">Gun Violence Archive</a>. Last year, there were 647 mass shootings in our nation. And gun violence overall claims more than 40,000 Americans annually. These numbers are staggering. But we cannot resign ourselves to the notion that mass violence of any kind must be accepted as a fact of life. As caregivers and healers, hospitals and health systems are the antithesis of violence. They are in the business of treating patients, healing communities and saving lives. At the same time, care teams experience firsthand the crippling effects of violence as they care for victims when they arrive in our emergency departments and other care facilities. They also are the ones delivering difficult news to families and comforting them during these heart-wrenching moments. It takes a toll. We must continue to stand up against violence. We must continue to push back and share solutions. And, we must vow to never accept violence as normal. Hospitals and caregivers are taking a stand in a number of ways. For example, this week more than 100 individuals, including hospital and health system leaders, policymakers, clinicians and researchers participated in Northwell Health’s fourth annual <a href="https://preventgunviolence.com" target="_blank">Gun Violence Prevention Forum</a>&nbsp;in New York City. The forum’s purpose is to create alliances, drive strategy and elevate the national conversation around gun violence as a public health emergency. This year’s sessions focused on actions to address some of the underlying causes of this crisis. In addition, AHA’s <a href="/hospitals-against-violence/human-trafficking/workplace-violence" target="_blank">Hospitals Against Violence (HAV)</a>&nbsp;initiative continues to shine a light on how hospitals and health systems are working to heal victims of violence as well as their communities, prevent further acts of violence, and address violence in the workplace. As part of the HAV initiative, we have been sharing resources and strategies to: support victims and communities of mass violence incidents; implement a public health approach to address gun violence; combat human trafficking; and enhance workplace violence prevention. These resources cover a broad range of issues, including dealing with active shooter incidents in health care settings, coping with anger and aggression in the workplace, and encouraging parents to ask family and friends if firearms are safely stored in their home, just to name a few. At the same time, hospitals and health systems are focused on the safety of health care workers who dedicate their lives to caring for others. Hospitals are taking a number of actions to enhance safety, including raising risk awareness, improving information-sharing and reporting, and investing in security, surveillance, training and alert notifications. But more must be done. Last year, the AHA drafted, secured sponsors and worked with Congress on legislation to give health care workers the same legal protections against assault and intimidation that flight crews and airport workers have under federal law. We are working to get similar legislation introduced and passed during this Congress. We must continue to take action to stop acts of violence in our nation. As places of healing, hope, safety and security, hospitals and health systems have an important role to play. Fri, 03 Mar 2023 08:56:41 -0600 Mass Violence FBI Active Shooter Resources /cybersecurity-government-intelligence-reports/2022-06-02-fbi-active-shooter-resources Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:53:48 -0600 Mass Violence Webinar July 14 on victim-centric response to mass violence incidents /news/headline/2022-06-30-webinar-july-14-victim-centric-response-mass-violence-incidents The Justice Department’s National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center will host a July 14 Town Hall webinar on victim-centric response to mass violence, which will also feature speakers from the Office for Victims of Crime, FBI and American Red Cross. The webinar will identify effective strategies to assess and address the needs of mass violence victims, survivors and community members. <a href="https://musccom.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qT1fjkgiQc692eJD1A9oUw">Register here</a>. AHA is a principal partner of the NMVVRC, established by a grant from the Justice Department.&nbsp; &nbsp; Thu, 30 Jun 2022 15:21:36 -0500 Mass Violence Reducing Gun Violence /news/blog/2022-06-10-reducing-gun-violence <div class="field_lead"> This public health issue requires attention by health care organizations. </div> Even raising the topic could be viewed as a transparent attempt to compromise or infringe on the Second Amendment. It is not. The evidence and justification for taking decisive action is indisputable even prior to the horrific shootings in Uvalde, Texas, Buffalo, N.Y., and other parts of the country. <ul> <li>According to a June 16, 2021 report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, “In 2019, close to 40,000 people died from a gun injury in the U.S., and about twice that number suffered nonfatal injuries.” This report also noted hospital costs for initial gun injury care, representing about 30,000 hospital stays and 50,000 emergency room visits, were just over $1 billion a year, based on data from 2016 and 2017 (the latest available at that time).</li> <li>After reviewing data from recent years in National Vital Statistics Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., reported on February 22, 2022 that firearms were the leading cause of trauma-related deaths in the U.S., overtaking motor vehicle crashes as the top cause of years of potential life lost. In the decade that researchers reviewed, firearms accounted for 12.6 million years of potential life lost.</li> <li>A March 23, 2022 New York Times article indicated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the rate of gun deaths of children 14 and younger rose by roughly 50% from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020.</li> </ul> <h2>The Need for Effective Action Plans</h2> A number of health care organizations have taken initiatives to address this ongoing national tragedy, but active engagement is needed by more health systems and hospitals already committed to improving community health status. The following are three specific steps for consideration. <ol> <li>Replicate the actions of the University of Maryland Medical Center violence prevention program that demonstrates how these steps brought participants’ reinjury rates as low as 5%. This program was initiated in recognition that those with a history of violent injury are usually 45% more likely to be readmitted with another such injury within five years. The services provided by the violence prevention program at Shock Trauma include peer support groups, individual counseling and advocacy, GED diploma assistance, job readiness and training, parole and probation service, connections to community resources, and protective/peace order filing assistance. According to a UMMC spokesperson, “The mission of VPP is to prevent violent personal injury among Baltimore’s most at-risk populations through research into the root causes of violence and the development of evidence-based programs targeting those root causes.”</li> <li>Consider the actions taken by Temple University Hospital, which treated more than 850 shooting victims in 2021, the highest number of any Level I trauma center in Pennsylvania. According to Scott Charles, the hospital’s trauma outreach manager, “Our efforts to address gun violence, which is the leading cause of death for a significant cross-section of our community, is consistent with our hospital’s mission to provide the highest quality of health care in both academic and community settings.” He added, “As a trauma department that prides itself on community service, we feel a moral obligation to utilize a public health approach to confronting the epidemic of gun violence.” Among the initiatives taken were the following: <ol> <li>Used its Fighting Chance program to teach community members how to provide basic first aid to victims of gunshot wounds.</li> <li>Developed a plan focused on at-risk youth to help break the cycle of gun violence.</li> <li>Instituted “The Turning Point” intervention program to take advantage of teachable moments that exist during the post-injury/pre-discharge period for survivors of violence.</li> <li>Created the Safe Bet Program to prevent unintentional childhood shooting. To date, Safe Bet had provided more than 8,000-gun locks to Philadelphia families.</li> </ol> </li> <li>Review the extensive literature on gun violence prevention programs at health systems and hospitals to determine which components can be instituted in your organization.</li> </ol> <h2>Concluding Comments</h2> The need to reduce gun violence is unrelated to the fact that the number of guns exceed the country’s total population or that U.S. gun production has tripled since 2000 fueled by handgun purchases. However, it is relevant that this nation’s gun death rate, as highlighted in a February 3, 2022 report from the Pew Research Center, was 10.6 per 100,000 people in 2016, the most recent year for which data was available, compared to countries such as Canada (2.1 per 100,000), Australia (1.0), France (2.7), Germany (0.9) and Spain (0.6). From the perspective of health care providers, the most critical issue is what more can be done to lower the daily carnage felt most at the local level. A logical first step is to become a member, if your organization has not already done so, of the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention. Established in 1994, the Alliance “supports an intervention community of violence intervention specialist, doctors, health administrators and researchers providing resources to enhance new and existing network programs.” Perhaps most importantly, these are programs advancing comprehensive models of care that address the intersectional nature of trauma, social determinants of health and violence. Paul B. Hofmann, DrPH, LFACHE, is president of the Hofmann Healthcare Group, Moraga, Calif., and co-editor of Managing Healthcare Ethically: An Executive’s Guide, published by Health Administration Press, and Management Mistakes in Healthcare, published by Cambridge University Press. Please note that the views of author does not always reflect the views of the AHA. Fri, 10 Jun 2022 11:48:33 -0500 Mass Violence Perspective: Speaking out and Stepping up Against Violence /news/perspective/2022-06-03-perspective-speaking-out-and-stepping-against-violence On Wednesday evening, a gunman killed four people in a medical building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. We grieve with the victims and their families, as well as the entire Saint Francis Health System team, as they mourn the loss of four members of their community. The shooting was the 20th mass shooting in our nation since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. The Tulsa shooting also was the 233rd mass shooting in our country this year. Last week’s <a href="/news/perspective/2022-05-25-perspective-taking-action-stop-gun-violence" target="_blank">Perspective column</a> discussed gun violence as a public health issue and the need to come together and take action to stop these senseless acts of violence. The Tulsa shooting further reinforces the need for action to be taken to stop these tragic events. Legislators are working on a bipartisan effort to address gun violence, and we urge them to act quickly. America’s hospitals and health systems experience each and every day firsthand the devastating impact all forms of violence have on individuals’ lives and health. And they see how violence can ripple through a community, affecting not just the injured but their family, friends and neighbors. In 2016, under the leadership of the AHA Board of Trustees, we developed the <a href="/hospitals-against-violence/human-trafficking/workplace-violence" target="_blank">Hospitals Against Violence (HAV) initiative</a> to shine a light on how hospitals and health systems are working to: heal victims of violence as well as their communities, prevent further acts of violence, and address violence in the workplace. As part of the HAV initiative, we have been sharing resources and strategies on supporting victims and communities of mass violence incidents; a public health approach to addressing gun violence; combating human trafficking; and workplace violence prevention. For example, in conjunction with the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, we recently released<a href="/guidesreports/2021-10-26-creating-safer-workplaces-guide-mitigating-violence-health-care-settings" target="_blank"> Creating Safer Workplaces: A guide to mitigating violence in health care settings</a>. This resource for health care and security leaders offers recommended action steps, <a href="/2021-12-03-workforce-and-workplace-violence-prevention-case-studies" target="_blank">case studies</a>, best practices and individual solutions to help build safer workplaces. Today is our sixth annual <a href="http://www.aha.org/HAVhope" target="_blank">#HAVhope Friday</a> — a national day of awareness to end violence. Throughout the day, hospitals and health systems and their community supporters from across the country have been sharing examples on social media of how they are standing up to violence and speaking out for their patients and communities. You can see the many examples on social media by following the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23HAVhope&amp;src=typed_query" target="_blank">#HAVhope</a>. The AHA in March <a href="/news/news/2022-03-24-aha-urges-doj-protect-health-care-workers-workplace-violence" target="_blank">urged</a> the Department of Justice to support legislation that would extend to health care workers federal protections against workplace violence, similar to those afforded to airline and airport employees. We are hopeful that legislation will be introduced soon as part of our continuing efforts to protect health care workers. Workers who dedicate themselves to saving lives deserve a safe environment — free of violence and intimidation — in which to deliver care. We will not let up in our efforts to ensure that all hospital and health system workers feel safe in the vital work they perform. At the same time, each and every person — including children going to school, worshippers attending a religious service or people going to the grocery store — should be able to live their lives free from violence and intimidation. As cornerstones of their communities and places of healing, safety and security, hospitals and health systems are an important voice for the rejection of violence in all its forms. Fri, 03 Jun 2022 08:27:12 -0500 Mass Violence