The future of EMSonCampus....

To the small but loyal group that continues to check this blog out on a regular basis:

I am currently in the process of deciding whether or not EMSonCampus will continue to be a part of Progressive Preparedness LLC. A realignment of initiatives has left me somewhat uncertain as to whether the audience and message of this blog is not duplicated elsewhere.

More information to come...

Great article

Short post to point you towards a great blog entry over at neighboring blog:

Since most of my readers are volunteers in EMS, Fire or EM, I think this is a thought provoking post on the level of responsibility we take on as the leaders of organizations that provide crucial services.

Certainly food for thought from Coastal Winds

Relationship Troubles

I know I've beat this dead horse a few times in the past, but I'd like to revisit some of my thoughts on relationships and how they affect organizational preparedness. The more I work in emergency management and EMS, the more I find that the answer to nearly every issue starts with the "need to build better relationships" with private sector partners, other jurisdictions, the federal government, etc. etc.

I know from my time managing an EMS agency that building relationships positively affects organizational health. Building personal and organizational rapport with the people and departments that have the ability to help you better accomplish your mission is the foundation on which long term success is built. Your budget, your access to resources, and your ability to let people know about your cause will always have its roots in the relationships you have. Ask any business owner and they'll tell you its all about "who you know." In my never ending effort to apply the lessons learned in business to the preparedness arena, I wonder if we're applying the same emphasis on the importance of relationship building.

The obvious reason for building relationships in "peace time" is so you're not meeting the person supporting your operation during "war time." Moreover, though, I think there's an element of situational awareness that happens long before the first dispatch that can be improved through outreach to partner organizations. I can't begin to count the number of times I find myself, either by chance or through planned meetings, face to face with someone only to learn they already had a plan, were actively working on something parallel to my area of responsibility, or had information that could increase my readiness. Understanding what's out there and who's responsible for it is the intangible element of preparedness that is all too often overlooked.

I think there's room to include it as a sub-discipline within the discipline of emergency management. (I don't mean to exclude specific response agencies here, so when I say "emergency management" I mean the collective agencies participating in preparedness efforts.) Building these relationships is something that needs to be done strategically - look at your strategic plan for the year and I'll bet the goals and objectives you've outlined present a number of situations that your organization can't overcome alone. In fact, I'd suggest that your strategic plans include a separate section calling out specific relationships to develop and outlining what the anticipated benefits of those relationships are. Thinking strategically about the relationships we build is a progressive way of adding value to each of them.

And on the note of adding value to relationships - remember that this is a two-way street. At the most basic level we build relationships because we want or need something. We have to ensure that we're giving the other half of that relationship something in return. Perhaps its simply that we're sharing our plans or providing advice on how we accomplish something or maybe its as large as a long term partnership.

Don't meet your next partner in preparedness after the dispatch goes out - do it beforehand and know why you're doing it.

Making the most of your summer on campus...

This article is aimed specifically at those of you who serve college campuses. I know during my time in Blacksburg, I spent most of my summers with a radio attached to my hip - Virginia Tech doesn't really close down during those months. Maybe some of your organizations don't provide services over the summer at all - but either way the summer provides some great opportunities to leverage the time you have; here are some of my ideas.

Plans, Policies, and Procedures: There's no one there to bug you, there's a lower call volume, your course load is lighter or non-existent. Maybe now would be a good time to blow the dust off your policy manual and take a critical look at what works, what doesn't, and where you need to fill some gaps. Don't forget about your Emergency Operations Plan.

Training and Exercises: Empty buildings, uncrowded roads, and fewer nosey neighbors make for an excellent time to get your folks together and do training and exercises. Tie the training weekend to a social event to get people back in town and have fun with it. It's like when your mom made you read over the summer in elementary school - keep your skills honed when you're not using them every day.

Your Awful Supply Closet: Take inventory, throw out the gauze that is so old its turning to dust. (Ever open that burn kit and see if the blanket as disintegrated?) This one might be the least interesting thing on the list - at least I think so. Nonetheless, the summer is a good time to take care of this kind of thing.

Build Relationships: Possibly the best use of your time on this list - go visit your local emergency manager, chief of police, university official, or donor. When your class schedule is lighter you can meet with these folks during normal business hours and the investment of time now will pay dividends the next time your organization needs to call on these resources.

Have some of your own ideas? Leave them in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

How to measure risk: The Susan Boyle Index

First off The Susan Boyle Index is now officially the intellectual property of my company, so don't use it.

Last week the media told me that the world was ending, shriveling in fear at the hands of the swine flu. Then on Monday, suddenly we were back to that British reality-show phenom, Susan Boyle. What happened? I thought we were all going to die and suddenly it's no big deal. So from now on I'm going to measure threats to my safety on a Susan Boyle Index (Copyright 2009). If she's bigger news than Pakistan, Swine flu, or the economy - then it must not be a big deal, right?

Its terrifying how disloyal the media's gaze can be. See my last post if you're looking for my feelings on that. Well now it seems the Swine Flu wasn't as big of an emergency as we thought. (When I say "we" I mean "the media.") I won't say I told you so, but I told you so.

What can we, as responders and planners, learn from this recent scare? First: I think we've gotten a lesson in public information. A tempered and calm information sharing strategy should always prevail over fearmongering and panic. Check.

Here's the big lesson though: for all those who got bored with Pandemic Flu training and exercises, we shouldn't just forget it because it isn't in vogue. This is still a very real threat to our safety and we need to be prepared for the real thing. After all, that dreaded "pig fever" might still come back meaner and nastier later on if it mutates.

So to review a few things specific to college and university readiness for this sort of emergency, I'll spell out some of my thoughts on the topic. Colleges are an obvious place for a flu virus to spread faster than the latest YouTube video of Susan Boyle's makeover. Students live on top of each other in the dorms and, as if they can't get enough of it, gather for parties and attend large social events regularly. Social distancing can be difficult in such an environment and putting all the students on buses, trains and planes back home to spread their H1N1 around the country isn't necessarily a better solution.

My recommendation, then is to be prepared to care for a large number of sick and to have robust prophylaxis distribution plans. (The TamiFlu kind, not the other kind.) Nearly every jurisdiction in the country has a PanFlu plan that includes these measures but I would imagine there are a large number of colleges and universities that may not; yet another example of our organizations lagging behind the rest of the preparedness community. As a collegiate EMS organization, you may or may not be able to do much more than advocate for this planning at the university level. Within your organization, however, you should be as prepared as you can be.

How will you share timely and accurate information with providers? Where will you get the information to share? Should you be eligible for early prophylaxis, how will you obtain it? If mass prophylaxis administration will take place on your campus - do you have any responsibilities in that process? If not, are there services your organization should offer to planners? How will you continue to respond to routine calls in addition to the large influx of sick patients if your providers become ill themselves? Are your providers aware of their responsibility to refrain from contacting patients if they are sick themselves? Do you have a plan in place for continuing operations in the wake of an evacuation?

I realize that I've simply asked a lot of questions and didn't provide any answers. I can't answer those questions for your unique organization. I can, however, guarantee you'll be in better shape than most if you go seek the answers to those questions now, rather than later. Develop relationships with local public health departments and with your college or university department of health and safety. Now is the time to put these things on paper and train your providers - not when the media decides to stop talking about Susan Boyle in favor of the next epidemic. The next one could, and likely will be serious.

Current Susal Boyle Index: Yellow (Elevated - Susan Boyle more of a threat than pandemic.)

Swine Flu - Maintaining Concern and a Healthy Skepticism

I wasn't going to do this. I didn't want to join the masses of reporters and pundits and radio show hosts getting readers, viewers and listeners all worked up by talking about the swine flu - but I can remain silent no longer.

First and foremost let me clarify that the lives lost to this virus represent a very real tragedy and I think nearly every major media outlet in the world has glanced over that part of the story. People have lost loved ones to a relatively simple virus and that is nothing short of tragic. Our hearts must go out to all those who have suffered such a loss.

I am not an epidemiologist. I do not work for the CDC. My basic education in the sciences would only enable me to give a cursory overview of what a virus does and how it acts in a population. I have, however, contributed to the fear of a pandemic influenza virus by participating in numerous disaster exercises that examined how communities would respond, and more dauntingly, recover from something as bad as the Spanish Flu outbreak. These fears are real. A true pandemic could bring the entire world to its knees. The results of a true pandemic would be catastrophic for nearly every group of people on the earth. I can scarcely fathom all the repercusions.

News flash: the world has not yet been brought to its knees by the swine flu. CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, Matt Lauer, The View, Mike O'Meara, Jim Vance, and the guy handing out government conspiracy pamphlets in front of the White House would have you think otherwise. (And on a separate note all share the same level of integrity and accuracy in reporting the "facts.") It is absolutely SHAMEFUL that when the media jumped on this story it was an immediate move to the doom and gloom of the bird flu, anthrax-laced letters and every other story deemed worthy of its own intimidating graphics.

The media at large seems to lack the social responsibility that would undoubtedly attenuate their fear mongering. Its all about ratings - not getting people the information they need. I'm not going to spend too many more keystrokes beleaguering that point since anyone with an ounce of intelligence already knows it. What scares me more than swine flu, IEDs, dirty bombs, earthquakes, kidnappings and Craigslist Killers is simply this: the media cries wolf and all the American sheep suddenly follow this week's most popular shepherd.

Another point I'm not going to give much page-space to is how ignorant many of those sheep are - there will always be ignorant people who can't think for themselves and I don't expect that to change between now and the end of the world. The danger that stems from the media dancing with the masses is not as obvious as ignorance; to label it as such is really nothing more than a shirking of our own social responsibility. No, the danger is that the media controls a very powerful tool - the ability to change the behavior of the masses at the drop of a hat (or the drawing of the cool new QUARANTINE graphic). Some day, we might really need that power.

The world, and especially Americans, will undoubtedly start to experience what those in the preparedness community have since 9-11: fear fatigue. For us it is the constant bombardment of new threats and preparedness challenges that cause us to grow weary - for the rest of the world it may very well be the media. God forbid that in our lifetime, or those of our posterity, there should be a very real need to wake the masses from their daily grind, to instill the kind of fear necessary to trigger the actions required to protect lives; the masses may not heed that call.

The fire alarm in my building was malfunctioning last Friday. It went off about 20 times during the day. The first few times we all went outside and waited for the fire department. The next few times the crowd got smaller. Eventually everyone just ignored it - even the fire department had to stop answering the call.

We have allowed the media to malfunction; to sound the alarm one too many times. We all have some responsibility in that - after all you watch the news don't you?

I might catch swine flu and get very sick but that doesn't scare me much. No, what really scares me is that no one will leave the building the next time the media-alarm goes off and we'll see a loss of life more devastating than anything we've ever seen before - all in the name of 24 hours of entertaining news 365 days a year.

There. Now I can have some swine flu hits on Google too.

Two Years Since the Virginia Tech Shootings

I'm sitting in Blacksburg, VA right now at the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad station. Like many nights when I was in college, I'm on duty on the second run crew right now. I'll probably get to sleep through the night tonight - unlike so many nights in college.

Two years ago today I would have been going to bed, unaware that the next morning would change not only my life, but that of 30,000 fellow students, their families, friends, professors, and anyone else that their lives had touched. The Virginia Tech shooting wasn't just a changing day for the people the event so irreversibly touched - but also for the entire higher education community. It was a wake-up call to campus administrators everywhere that the serene grounds of their campuses were not immune to the carnage of true disaster.

So tonight as I get ready to participate in the memorial services held here tomorrow, I have to wonder: how are we doing two years later? Have colleges and universities made lasting changes to help safeguard the lives of the students, faculty and staff?

I think the answer is yes for some, but still no for too many. As I wrote in my most recent publication - colleges and universities have used the crutch of security improvements and messaging systems to show off their new preparedness efforts. As ready as they might be for the next Cho - what about the tornado, flood, or fire? What about the ice storm, the noro virus outbreak, or the sinkhole?

Preparedness is more than gates, guns, and guards. Colleges and universities should take note because the next campus disaster to make the news probably won't be a shooting.