Randy, a class like this makes perfect sense to me. The Joint Commission has a number of performance measures that pertain specifically to emergency management, including the conduct of an hazard/vulnerability analysis, EOP development (including that management participate in its development), systems for coordination with municipal EM services, redundancy measures for power/water/steam/elevators/communications, and staff training, just to name a few. So there is already an awareness of the need because of the JC requirement to do all of this. The existence of standard requirements, however, does not mean that the person that is tasked with ensuring their hospital complies possesses the EM background and training required to do it right, which brings us back to your question.

There's a cultural issue with hospitals just like there is with the emergency services (including EM) that because their day-to-day is managing other people's emergencies, they are inherently prepared for emergencies. But just like it's often the case that municipal EM offices are located in the basement of a flood-prone government building, it's also the case that hospitals end up in the path of a disaster and quickly go from being care providers to recipients.

As an aside, many or most hospitals are one component of a much larger healthcare system that also includes (as an example) a university, external medical offices, clinics, labs, research facilities, maintenance facilities, and more. So it's a complex issue driven by enterprise practices which can conflict with the need to perform facility-specific planning. There are systems that have brought on career emergency managers to tackle this issue and that's perhaps going to help advance this practice.

In my opinion this would make much more sense as a graduate-level offering. That being said, the value of having a course on emergency preparedness in a healthcare administration or management program would be more to provide a deep awareness. However, what is required to actually perform the actions needed to bring about effective disaster resilience for a hospital or healthcare facility takes a deeper background in emergency management, risk management, or BCP. There is little question that most hospital administrators will be capable of developing the surge or sustain capabilities needed to provide community emergency management assistance. It's an entirely different skill set that's required to manage one's own disaster.

Damon, thanks for your reply. At one point in my career, while working in hospital administration much of the EM function was one of my areas. I agree completely that we often get caught up in the attitude that we can manage a medical emergency so those skills translate to an EM response. I have a personal bias with how I see this but that's my concern. Is this a real issue or just a personal viewpoint, thus the question! Thanks.

Randy,

Having experienced an emergency in the past, I would agree that courses in disaster planning/response are prudent.  While working at a hospital system in Detroit, we experienced a breakdown in the electrical grid in 2003 that left the city without power for about 2 days.  We learned a lot from that experience, most of which we should have already known and been prepared for.  As Damon pointed out, the Joint Commission requires preparedness and coordination, but with funding tight, resources are often put toward activities that generate revenue rather than true preparedness.

In the event of a widespread emergency, I do feel the country and it's medical infrastructure are not prepared.  In some instances, I think rural hospitals may have an edge because of location and the need to be self sufficient in the event of a disaster.  In rural Missouri where I live now, the hospital and health department are much better prepared for a natural disaster, pandemic, etc.

I agree with the folks that have already answered, it makes perfect sense on many levels. I feel that is would be beneficial to offer the course at both the graduate and undergraduate level as it would allow more students to become educated about disasters. This hopefully, would help them to become more prepared personally, and lead to greater community resilience.  The disaster knowledge gained in class would be applicable not only to hospital and healthcare facilities, but also to small businesses. It may also be seen as a hiring advantage during the interview process. 

Thanks Kathy and Annette. I have personal views which certainly hamper my objectiveness. Nevertheless, I think it's important to get this topic in front of students well before they are confronted with a problem in their career. There are several topics that have been on the sideline and we ended up learning in an OJT role as administrators. However, I think we are setting people up to fail or worse, leave them to think this is not important.

I remember when I was a student nurse almost four decades ago disaster management was part of the core subject under hospital management. I remember we went through practicals drills on how to evacuate wards in case of fire disaster. Of course there was constraints with time that the course was not detailed, but it became useful in my 35 years of care giving and management. 

I agree with the suggestion.

Chris, thanks for your post. There tends to be a focus to streamline educational processes thereby eliminating or minimizing that which is not a part of the everyday environment of care. Nevertheless, as you have stated with your own experience, I think we can recognize the value of including this topic in the core content for those involved in healthcare administration and operations.

I experienced first hand as an exercise evaluator for the Central Florida Medical Disaster Coalition the disconnect between emergency managers' expectations and hospital staff behaviors. There are three patient care continuity phases recognized by hospital staff and four to six emergency management phases.  

My research in community resiliency confirmed the Organizational Behavior Theory that the least preferred worker is the determinant in implementing business strategies. Therefore, how familiar staff are with the facility's emergency plan and how comfortable the staff are with making authorized changes during disasters or medical surges then the more successful a facility's recovery.

Can this behavior be taught in a classroom? It is my personal bias that people do what works for them and rely upon movie dramas in lieu of facts. Perhaps attitudes can be taught based upon what is known of disaster history and disaster psychology. 

I recommend Dennis Mileti's "Disaster by Design" as one of the reference materials for your pending course. Also, "Five Days at Memorial" by Sheri Fink.