The World is Changing.
Preparedness is Changing With It.
A Move to Continuous Readiness
Pediatric Hospitals and NICUs/PICUs in acute care hospitals face unique challenges in disaster preparedness due to high-complexity equipment and vulnerable patient populations.
With a focus on Continuous Readiness, GRP provides specialized disaster preparedness solutions and training tailored to the specific needs of neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, ensuring the safety and continuity of critical care services.
Preparedness is Evolving
The healthcare industry is moving away from a Periodic Readiness approach to one of Continuous Readiness.
This evolution is in the best interest of people, as we examine the needs of patients, staff, and visitors. It increases the effectiveness of performance during a disaster. And it helps enhance the reputation of your healthcare system as you prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster. It’s also best for your budget.
Evolving from Periodic Readiness to Continuous Readiness
GOOD: BASELINE APPROACH
Conduct an In-Depth Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA)
Create and Implement a Comprehensive All-Hazards Plan for Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, & Recovery
Learn From and Improve Following Incidents (Hot Wash, After Action Reports, etc.)
BETTER: BASELINE + PERIODIC READINESS
Periodic readiness is when we prepare for a specific type of disaster—a pandemic, hurricane, tornado, wildfire, etc.— and try to overcome it. We use funding from federal grants and your internal budget, which are capped and time sensitive. The goal of that funding is to overcome the challenge, not to look ahead.
This model does not help us create resiliency in our healthcare system, and it does not center around patient care. High-performing leaders want continuous improvement to patient care, and they want resiliency across their organization, but the current structure does not support that trajectory.
Furthermore, climate-related disasters are now interspersed with regional emergencies. Mass-casualty events and facility evacuations are still relatively rare, but becoming more common. Healthcare coalitions, systems, and individual facilities have to prepare differently, because as they face recovery from one emergency, another is on its heels.
Simply put, healthcare facilities that continue to take a periodic-readiness approach may put themselves at risk of serious impact—and that impact translates to potential loss of lives and financial crisis post-event.
BEST: CONTINUOUS READINESS
We need to plan differently.
Continuous Readiness is a process that consistently evolves to help healthcare organizations achieve a higher level of preparedness and resiliency. With a Continuous Readiness approach, emergency planning aligns with facility and system-wide strategic planning, budgeting becomes more predictable, and compliance requirements are the minimum standard, not the bar to strive for (e.g., CMS, TJC, JCI, DNV).
If you are ready to evolve how your organization protects patients, and you want to see a return on your emergency preparedness investments, let’s talk about how a Continuous Readiness approach gets you there.
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What if there was a flood, and you had to manage a short-term service interruption?
For a hospital with $2B in annual revenue, this could be $38.5M and likely have a 3-week impact, causing an additional $29M in costs (excluding repairs, disaster staffing, supplies, etc.)
Yes, insurance will cover a sizable % of this, but when and how hard will the fight be to get funded properly?
How many staff and legal hours will be invested in this?
What is the impact of losing community confidence? Reputation?
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Not a traditional HVA with a paper-based process and basic facility/property tour, but a true HVA that combines lessons from the past with resources to make intelligent forecasts about the future.
Would you have invested the additional $150,000 to install some flood barriers in the areas at risk as a mitigation step?
Would that investment have been worth it?
How often do you repeat the detailed HVA vs. a traditional one? Is this part of a healthcare system resiliency plan?
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What if we could show you how the investment in a Continuous Readiness strategy could have saved you more than $9.5M over a 5-year period with the same flooding disaster?
What if you could show how your investment in staff and patient safety increased confidence in your organization? What is the value of reputation?
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Learn more about how Global Readiness Partners (GRP) can assist you in working through short- and long-term solutions.
Continuous Readiness Strategies Help
Stabilize Budgets
With proper analysis of your current capabilities and strategic prioritization of your current needs, we help you design a strong and consistent program that allows you to create budget projections that inspire continued investment in preparedness efforts. Most health systems find this trajectory stabilizing.