The current changing threat environment and recent emergencies, including acts of nature, pandemic outbreaks, aviation and rail and other transportation accidents, technological emergencies, and military or terrorist attack-related incidents, active shooter, have increased the need for viable continuity of operations capabilities and plans that enable healthcare providers and facilities to continue their essential functions across a spectrum of emergencies. These conditions, coupled with the potential for terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, radiation events and other incidences have increased the importance of having continuity programs that ensure continuity of essential functions across the healthcare delivery system. This is especially true when the hospital is a sole community provider or in a geographically isolated location far enough away from alternative health facilities who could immediately provide mutual aid or accept diverted patients. In this one day workshop, Dr Maria Todd guides your team through what it takes to create and implement a continuity plan to facilitate the performance of your hospital or health system to sustain essential functions during all-hazards emergencies or other situations that may disrupt normal operations. They may also be required to defend your pledge to use best efforts to continue operations associated with Force Majeure clauses in your managed care and government payer agreements.

1. Speaker: Maria K Todd, MHA PhD
Event Type: Interactive 1-day Workshop
CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS
Is your hospital or health system ready?
The current changing threat environment and recent emergencies, including acts of nature, pandemic outbreaks, aviation
and rail and other transportation accidents, technological emergencies, and military or terrorist attack-related incidents,
active shooter, have increased the need for viable continuity of operations capabilities and plans that enable healthcare
providers and facilities to continue their essential functions across a spectrum of emergencies. These conditions, coupled
with the potential for terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, radiation events and other incidences have increased
the importance of having continuity programs that ensure continuity of essential functions across the healthcare delivery
system. This is especially true when the hospital is a sole community provider or in a geographically isolated location far
enough away from alternative health facilities who could immediately provide mutual aid or accept diverted patients.
In this one day workshop, Dr Maria Todd guides your team through what it takes to create and implement a continuity plan
to facilitate the performance of your hospital or health system to sustain essential functions during all-hazards emergencies
or other situations that may disrupt normal operations. They may also be required to defend your pledge to use best efforts
to continue operations associated with Force Majeure clauses in your managed care and government payer agreements.
Drawing upon her decades of experience in healthcare administration and surgical nursing, and leveraging special training
in healthcare entity disaster planning, and healthcare disaster recovery from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) in the USA, and coupled with hands on training and work experience as a firefighter in the 1970s, she brings a
unique approach to continuity of operations planning for healthcare organizations.
Dr Todd addresses the following, inter alia:
• The plan overview and scope
• Key personnel that should be included, roles and responsibilities
• Target goals of the plan (“to establish operational capability and perform essential functions within “x” hours from the
time of the activation of the continuity plan, until normal operations can be resumed.”)
• Documentation principles (changes, updates, transmittals)
• Phase I: the situation overview and risk assessment, diagnosis, and recommendations
• Defining plan objectives
• Security and privacy, rosters, dissemination policies, “need to know” restrictions, threat level alerts
• Alert and notification procedures and policies
• Decision matrices - events with warning, events without warning, relocation or shelter in place
• Phase II: readiness and preparedness, inter-agency coordination, drills, “red teaming” (vulnerability testing)
• Continuity Operations - in place; at alternative locations, accounting for all personnel
• PHASE III: Reconstitution Operations, Devolution of control options, delegation and direction, triggers and triggering
authority, direction, control and coordination
• Required critical and essential disaster intelligence
• Communications plans
• Budgeting and acquisition (identifies the people, communications, facilities, infrastructure, and transportation
requirements, which are necessary to the successful implementation and management of the continuity program)
• Risk management methods to identify, prioritize, and justify the allocation of budgetary resources
• Ongoing plan development and maintenance
• Required plan annexes that deal with preparedness targets - (training, exercises, equipment checks and maintenance)
• Required plan annexes that deal with specific hazards
Dr Todd shares and compares her perspective and experience across geographies - USA, UK, Asia, Latin America, the
Middle East and Europe - and uses real life case studies to provide practical, pragmatic insights. Several useful course
supplemental materials are provided at no additional charge.