/ en Mon, 28 Apr 2025 04:59:11 -0500 Thu, 10 Oct 24 10:10:18 -0500 /news/perspective/2024-10-10-hospitals-are-always-there-patients-and-communities-including-times-disasters-and-emergencies <p>When a natural disaster or emergency strikes, where is one of the first places people turn to? Their local hospital.</p><p>That’s because hospitals and health systems are always there, ready to care and play a crucial role in disaster preparedness and response by serving as essential community hubs for many aspects of medical care and public health during emergencies.</p><p>We’ve seen this time and time again, including during the last few weeks as Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton have pummeled states in the southeast and caused widespread devastation for families and communities. Our thoughts remain with those affected as they go through the difficult weeks and months ahead.</p><p>During these storms, we have seen countless examples of hospital teams going above and beyond to care for patients and protect communities. Many health care workers, whose own homes and property were destroyed, worked around-the-clock to provide critical care and comfort to those most in need, and that work continues today. </p><p>The North Carolina Healthcare Association and Tennessee Hospital Association have each established relief funds to assist hospital employees in their states who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene’s unprecedented destruction and flooding, and the AHA has contributed to both relief funds.</p><p>The AHA has been working to support hospitals and health systems in a number of additional ways, including advocating for additional actions to be taken to increase the supply of intravenous (IV) solutions for hospitals and other health care providers that are struggling with shortages, as well as sharing resources with the field to enhance our nation’s preparedness, response and recovery efforts.</p><p><strong>Addressing IV Solutions Supply Shortages.</strong> In a letter to President Biden earlier this week, we urged the Administration to take immediate actions to support hospitals’ ability to care for patients and communities as they grapple with IV solution shortages as a result of the closure of Baxter’s manufacturing plant in Marion, N.C., due to damage caused by Hurricane Helene. This facility is a critical supplier of IV and peritoneal dialysis solutions, producing approximately 60% — or 1.5 million bags — of the IV solutions used every day in the U.S.</p><p>Hospitals and health systems immediately implemented organization-specific action plans to conserve IV fluids and ensure patient access to care and services, but they continue to report substantial shortages of these lifesaving and life-supporting products.</p><p>Baxter Oct. 9 <a href="https://www.baxter.com/baxter-newsroom/hurricane-helene-updates" target="_blank" title="Baxter October 9 announcement">announced</a> that it is increasing the current U.S. allocation levels of its highest demand IV fluids for direct customers from 40% to 60%, and for distributors from 10% to 60%, effective immediately .</p><p>We appreciate the Administration’s collaboration with us on this and their responses to date to ensure the needs of hospitals and patients are met. While we know the recovery from this historic storm will take time, we are grateful for the ongoing commitment to mitigate these supply chain disruptions and ensure access to care for patients.</p><p>The AHA will continue to engage with leaders on Capitol Hill, federal agencies, Baxter and other stakeholders to pull all available levers to ensure hospitals and health systems have the supplies they need to care for patients. Visit AHA’s <a href="/updates-iv-fluid-supplies-after-helene-forces-closure-baxter-manufacturing-plant" target="_blank" title="AHA's Update Webpage">webpage</a> for the latest information and resources, including conservation strategies.</p><p><strong>Resources on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery. </strong>The AHA has developed and shared an online hub of resources designed to enhance our nation’s public health preparedness, response and recovery efforts and support communities. These resources were developed as part of <a href="/aha-clear" target="_blank" title="Convening Leaders for Emergency and REsponse (Clear ) initiative information">Convening Leaders for Emergency and Response (CLEAR)</a>, an initiative dedicated to strengthening hospitals’ and health systems’ capabilities to prepare for, respond to and recover from future emergencies and natural disasters.</p><p>The resources include <a href="/aha-clear" target="_blank" title="Clear Video Resources">videos</a> featuring hospital and health system leaders discussing their firsthand experiences navigating public health emergencies; <a href="/aha-clear/tipsheets" target="_blank" title="Public health emergencies tip sheets">tip sheets</a> with strategies and real-world examples for hospitals and health systems to effectively prepare for and respond to a variety of public health emergency scenarios; and a <a href="/aha-clear/field-guide-for-emergency-preparedness" target="_blank" title="Health Emergency field guide">field guide</a> with actionable strategies to help build a more unified health care and public health care system for the future.</p><p>The AHA will continue to support hospitals and health systems as they prepare for and respond to emergencies and disasters, including the ongoing ones in the southeast.</p> Thu, 10 Oct 2024 10:10:18 -0500 Emergency Management /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-10-08-top-priority-3-health-care-emergency-preparedness-tips <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Top-Priority-3-Health-Care-Emergency-Preparedness-Tips.png" data-entity-uuid="affeee44-73e2-4de3-8a3f-9c67423b0666" data-entity-type="file" alt="Top Priority — 3 Health Care Emergency Preparedness Tips. A blue hurricane evacuation route sign with storm clouds in the background." width="100%" height="100%"></p><p>Hurricane Helene tore through Florida’s Gulf Coast area on its way north in late September, bringing with it a storm surge of more than two feet above previous records. As other buildings in the area were taking in water, Tampa General Hospital, which sits on an island, remained dry.</p><p>That wasn’t good luck. It was a function of emergency preparedness. Five years earlier the hospital began investing in a floodwall from AquaFence, a Norwegian company that supplies industrial-grade, watertight barriers that can be deployed rapidly in a flood, a Washington Post report notes.</p><p>The high fence helps safeguard the hospital’s main campus from flood threats — a vitally important protection since Tampa General is the only Level 1 trauma center in the region.</p><p>Other health care organizations in states like North Carolina weren’t so fortunate. Several days after the storm that led to a collapse of cellphone networks and roads, UNC Health Appalachian had no way to communicate with its staff and was trying to locate about 25% of its workers, according to news reports.</p><p>Like hurricanes Sandy and Ian, the devastation wrought across the Southeast by Hurricane Helene is the latest example of how quickly health facility emergency preparedness plans can be severely tested or overwhelmed by Mother Nature.</p><p>Hospital and health system executives and their partners who have responded to other crises — caused by tornadoes, wildfires, chemical spills or other disasters — have learned important lessons about how to ensure continuity of care even at the worst of times.</p><p>In a recent AHA Leadership Scan panel discussion, <a href="/education-events/when-disaster-strikes-how-maintain-continuity-care" target="_blank" title="AHA Webinar: When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care">“When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care,”</a> leaders from Lee Health, Fort Myers, Florida, California-based Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and North American Partners in Anesthesia shared insights on building and maintaining a culture of preparedness. The frank discussion illustrates the need for innovative thinking, building effective leadership teams outside the C-suite, and protecting and supporting staff amid harrowing circumstances.</p><h2><span>3 Ways to Prepare for a Disaster</span></h2><h3><span><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Cultivate-a-preparedness-culture.png" data-entity-uuid="9e9818da-b1e9-4b61-b9a4-89b3f750f176" data-entity-type="file" alt="Cultivate a preparedness culture." width="524" height="612" class="align-left">1</span> <span>|</span> Cultivate a preparedness culture.</h3><p>It may be part of every organization’s regularly scheduled drills, but there should be nothing routine about emergency preparedness. Leaders need to cultivate a culture of preparedness, Randy S. Rogers, CEO at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, notes.</p><p>In responding to disasters like floods, tornados and chemical spills, Rogers stresses the need to practice for worst-case scenarios — even when that can be difficult to envision — and to develop leadership teams outside the C-suite who will serve on the front lines of ensuring continuity of care.</p><p>“I am never the incident commander. I am in a support role,” Rogers says, adding that those chosen to lead during times of crisis don’t necessarily have to be from emergency operations or a chief nursing officer. “It can be a director of rehab services or a radiology manager, someone who shows promise that they can provide leadership in a crisis.”</p><h3><span><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Prepare-but-expect-the-unexpected.png" data-entity-uuid="fcaec285-f130-454c-a244-3460aa45c803" data-entity-type="file" alt="Prepare, but expect the unexpected." width="524" height="612" class="align-left">2</span> <span>|</span> Prepare, but expect the unexpected.</h3><p>When Hurricane Ian hit landfall in Florida in September 2022, Lee Health was impacted by the disruption of the entire city water supply because of the high number of uprooted trees. The health system suddenly had facilities without water for fire suppression and life-safety needs — scenarios they had not planned for in drills because they had never happened before.</p><p>“We had to evacuate an entire children's hospital; and 72 NICU bed patients had to be transferred across various parts of the state for safety [reasons],” says Scott Nygaard, CEO at Lee Health. The situation reminded Nygaard of a quote from boxer Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”</p><p>The lesson learned was a valuable one. In May, Lee Health received a $4.3 million grant from the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Hurricane Recovery Grant Program to help support Lee Health’s $14.7 million project to build 15 deep wells to support essential health care services during any future post-disaster recovery.</p><h3><span><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Plan-for-ways-to-expand-and-optimize-staff-utilization.png" data-entity-uuid="fbc085f4-38c4-4658-ab21-90facedd01f3" data-entity-type="file" alt="Plan for ways to expand and optimize staff utilization." width="524" height="612" class="align-left">3</span> <span>|</span> Plan for ways to expand and optimize staff utilization.</h3><p>Leo Penzi, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer (CMO) for North American Partners in Anesthesia, has viewed emergency preparedness through three lenses — as an anesthesiologist, as a CMO and as a member of incident command during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.</p><p>“One of the problems that we must overcome in general is that [disaster situations] are often viewed by the front-line staff as problems that the emergency room or administration deals with. We must get past that,” Penzi says. “The first thing we need to do for internal preparedness is to get people to understand that this is everyone’s problem, and we can all contribute [to solving it].”</p><p>Tabletop exercises are one of many valuable tools in emergency preparedness, but those exercises can’t be done in a command center, Penzi says. Health care executives need to engage each division to identify and understand "What if?" scenarios. “You need the end user to think through scenarios because there's no cavalry coming when the lights go out [and generators aren’t functioning] and you have a patient on the operating room table.”</p><h2><span>Learn More</span></h2><p>Listen to the full <a href="/education-events/when-disaster-strikes-how-maintain-continuity-care" target="_blank" title="AHA webinar: When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care">AHA Leadership Scan webinar</a> on demand for a deeper discussion of these issues.</p><p>Read the AHA American Society for Health Care Engineering report <a href="https://www.ashe.org/sustainability/weathering-the-storm-climate-change" target="_blank" title="ASHE: Weathering the Storm: Health care facilities on the front lines of climate change response and recovery">Weathering the Storm e-book</a> to learn more about the experiences of health care facilities around the country that have endured extreme weather events. The articles discuss how these organizations are planning and preparing for future weather disasters.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:00:00 -0500 Emergency Management /news/chairpersons-file/2024-09-09-chair-file-enhancing-preparation-and-response-public-health-emergencies <p>Twenty years ago, National Preparedness Month was established in September by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in response to the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.</p><p>We’ll never forget those who lost their lives or were injured on 9/11, and we’ll never forget the heroes. The lives of so many individuals and families forever changed in the aftermath of those attacks. There were untold and uncountable heroic acts by so many people working at hospitals and health systems, who cared for those who were injured.</p><p>Hospitals and health systems are among the front-line responders during public health emergencies such as terrorist attacks, mass violence incidents, natural disasters, pandemics and cyberattacks. Though our country has made much progress at the federal, state and local levels to prepare for and respond to such emergencies — the work continues.</p><p>The AHA has developed an online hub of resources designed to enhance our nation’s public health preparedness, response and recovery efforts and support communities. These resources were developed as part of <a href="/aha-clear">Convening Leaders for Emergency and Response</a> (CLEAR), an initiative dedicated to strengthening hospitals’ and health systems’ capabilities to prepare for, respond to and recover from future emergencies and natural disasters.</p><p>Enhancing our nation’s emergency management system calls for strengthening cross-sector partnerships, building workforce capacity and resilience, sharing information, managing misinformation and normalizing a culture of preparedness.</p><p>I encourage you to check out these CLEAR resources focused on those overall objectives:</p><ul><li><a href="/aha-clear/tipsheets">Tip sheets</a> offering strategies and real-world examples for hospitals and health systems to effectively prepare for and respond to a variety of public health emergency scenarios.</li><li><a href="/aha-clear">Videos</a>, from the CLEAR Crisis Leadership Series, featuring hospital and health system leaders discussing their firsthand experiences navigating public health emergencies, ranging from mass violence incidents to cyberattacks.</li><li><a href="/aha-clear/field-guide-for-emergency-preparedness">Field guide</a> outlining aligned priorities and actionable strategies to ensure a more unified health care and public health care system for the future.</li></ul><p>No one can predict exactly when the next pandemic, hurricane, cyberattack or terrorist attack will occur. But health care teams can learn and practice emergency preparedness and response skills, leaders can foster a culture of preparedness, and hospitals and health systems can work with community partners to develop and improve frameworks for collaboration and communication. It’s imperative that our teams are always ready for the next public health emergency.</p> Mon, 09 Sep 2024 12:04:31 -0500 Emergency Management /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-06-25-when-disaster-strikes-how-maintain-continuity-care <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><h2><span><strong> </strong></span><span><strong>New</strong></span><span> AHA Leadership Scan</span><span> </span></h2><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/When-Disaster-Strikes-How-to-Maintain-Continuity-of-Care.png" data-entity-uuid="690cacc1-15fd-4b50-8ca4-0854a9ddada8" data-entity-type="file" alt="When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care. An Evacuation Route sign in the foreground with the clouds of an incoming hurricane in the background." width="100%" height="100%"></p><p>Hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and other events of nature occur with little to no warning. During these natural disasters, communities continue to depend on hospitals for care. Regardless of these uncontrollable events, hospitals must remain a beacon of hope, and this comes with emergency preparedness.</p><p>How provider organizations prepare for and respond to these often-overwhelming threats to clinical care largely will determine whether that beacon continues to shine.</p><p>Attend the July 10 AHA Leadership Scan discussion, <a href="https://aha-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/1817158757908/WN_Ws02bKFeTV2isdWIK4LBgw#/registration" target="_blank" title="AHA ZOOM: 07-10-24 When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care Leadership Scan information and registration.">“When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care,”</a> from 1 to 2 p.m. ET to learn strategies that create resilience and allow clinical services and overall hospital operations to remain on track amid potential obstacles.</p><p>Panelists from Lee Health, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and North American Partners in Anesthesia will discuss what it takes to succeed in these moments of truth and share insights that helped their organizations respond effectively during some of the nation’s most challenging disasters.</p><h2><span>Attendees will learn:</span></h2><ul><li>To define what it takes to build a culture of preparedness.</li><li>To assess threats to continuity of clinical operations during disasters.</li><li>To define key elements of an operations continuity plan.</li><li>To share insights on how to solve problems in real time during a crisis.</li></ul><p>Attendees also will receive one ACHE qualified education hour toward initial certification or recertification of the Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives designation. <a href="https://aha-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/1817158757908/WN_Ws02bKFeTV2isdWIK4LBgw#/registration" target="_blank" title="AHA ZOOM: 07-10-24 When Disaster Strikes: How to Maintain Continuity of Care Leadership Scan information and registration."><strong>Register now!</strong></a></p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 25 Jun 2024 06:00:00 -0500 Emergency Management