By Jeff Wardon, Jr., Assistant Editor

Healthcare facilities face disasters and emergencies of all kinds, whether they be in the real world or digital world. Being prepared is key to making it through these dire scenarios. Prep and training for emergency situations can be done via many different methods from standard drills to realistic simulations. 

Healthcare Facilities Today recently spoke to Jon Crosson, director of health sector resilience at Health-ISAC, to learn more about how healthcare organizations can plan and prepare for emergencies. 

HFT: How are healthcare facilities shifting from routine emergency preparedness drills to more precise, real-world response tactics in high-stakes scenarios? 

Jon Crosson: The advances in technology have led to the use of better simulations. You have virtual reality and artificial intelligence that comes into play now – those allow for the opportunity to create more complex training and exercises. It also allows for a more realistic simulated environment than the old days. 

One exercise example is that earlier this year, with one of our exercise partners, we used an AI company to deliver news updates as part of the emergency scenario. They come on and have a have a news person share realistic updates just like a news broadcast during the exercise to create a more realistic feel. 

Whether it be a cyber incident or real-world disaster, but for all hazards, the more realistic the exercises are, the more realistic the stress feels. This provides an opportunity to make decisions under pressure during the training and exercises, so you'll be prepared to do that during a real incident when it occurs. 

One best practice is to include multiple departments into your exercises, allowing them to become more robust and more realistic. Also, some healthcare facilities have included local law enforcement or first responders in some of their exercises, which is a great thing to do. However, I think by focusing on these approaches, healthcare facilities can enhance their preparedness and resilience for real world emergencies.   

HFT: What strategies are healthcare providers adopting to protect staff, patients and essential operations during emergencies, such as natural disasters or cyberattacks? 

Crosson: Just about every facility has emergency preparedness, incident response plans and playbooks that they use during a real-world incident. It's very important that they go back and update those gaps or areas for improvement during either an exercise or a real-world incident. You must go back to update those plans and procedures so you're ready for the next incident. 

Those facilities have plans that cover all hazards such as cyber, physical, natural disasters or pandemics. So, it's important for the healthcare facilities to continue to train and exercise on those threats. The more they practice, the better they're going to be during an incident when one occurs. 

Related: Facility Management: First Line of Defense in Healthcare Facilities

Another thing that's come up recently and been highlighted by some recent incidents is supply chain resilience. Healthcare facilities are looking to adapt to ensure they have the essential medical equipment supplies that they need, which may include using more than one company to get their stockpiling supply, so they have them for an extended period if an incident does occur. I also think telehealth services, which really expanded during COVID, allows providers to continue delivering care remotely, even during an incident or crisis.  

As far as cyber security, strengthening the IT infrastructure with encryption, regular system updates and patches to help protect the data from cyberattacks. Another thing that came up some during some recent exercises is for healthcare facilities to provide mental health resources and support for staff to help manage their stress and prevent burnout during an incident. 

Finally, healthcare providers are continuing to implement improved ways to continue their operations during an incident. Whether that be building stronger facilities or having backup power and water to continue providing operations in patient care. 

HFT: How are best practices in emergency preparedness evolving, and what role do healthcare organizations play in shaping industry standards for response and recovery? 

Crosson: Integrating emergency preparedness into daily operations is important. A lot of healthcare facilities and organizations seem to be including that into their training policies and procedures. Also taking an all-hazards approach is very important as organizations are continuing to evolve. I mentioned having that ability to continue to provide services, even if patients can't come into a facility, healthcare providers are able to continue to provide the care. Then having the resilience around supply chain operations such as having more than one supplier or having a good stockpile of essential supplies - it's all important. 

Then the role that healthcare organizations play in shaping standards for response and recovery is often in collaboration with different national or international bodies that develop those guidelines and standards. The Health Sector Coordinating Council does a good job in developing various plans and procedures for the healthcare sector. Often those are shared and brought up to a broader national perspective as well. 

Health-ISAC also has a hobby exercise where we have two separate exercises in the USA and Europe with the goal of bringing public and private organizations together to identify some of the issues and areas for improvement within healthcare. Also, developing those after-action reports after every exercise for real world incidents is very important for continuous improvement and helping guide some of the industry standards. 

Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor for the facilities market.