Incident Management In Healthcare: Not Just For Disasters

On May 11th, 2010 at just after eight in the morning, 175 cell phones went off in unison as staff, managers, directors, and executives were suddenly notified that the Joint Commission survey was beginning. During the course of the survey the units used CommandAware to communicate back to the Command Center to ask questions and request documentation. Staffed by the Quality department, the Command Center served as a one stop shop for compliance information and data compilation. Summaries of the day's findings were posted along with instructions on what needed to be reviewed. For example, the Incident Commander posted the following message at the end of the second day: "For tomorrow, review high-alert meds and how to handle them."

The Emergency Management Standards review began on day three. Good Samaritan's Disaster Committee wanted to use CommandAware during the review to run a tabletop drill and show the surveyor how the system worked, but they didn't want to end the already-running survey incident. Their Concerro representative provided just-in-time training over the phone that morning to show them how to run concurrent incidents. This enabled everyone to keep up with the surveyors while the Disaster Committee conducted an earthquake drill.