Agencies are getting prepared – hurricane season is upon us! The Emergency Preparedness Summit took place on Tuesday at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in Austin, Texas. Over 130 attendees heard from industry experts on all-things disaster preparedness related.
The first half of the day was filled with a detailed regulatory guidance class including how to apply the state and federal emergency preparedness rules and what surveyors are looking for. After lunch, attendees welcomed a panel of community partners representing various regional advisory councils as well as the Texas Hospital Preparedness Program State Coordinator for Health Emergency Preparedness & Response Section of the Texas Department of State Health Services, Keri Beth Cain. The panel encouraged attendees to get involved in the Hospital Preparedness Program and discussed how providers can reach out and coordinate with their trauma regional advisory councils to learn how their regions deal with emergencies and who to contact in order to coordinate their agency's plans.
Wrapping up the day were sessions on risk-assessments and testing your plans which received great reviews. Hearing from Mary Helen Tieken and Laura Montgomery about responses to emergencies was informative from the provider perspective and Beverly Sepulveda provided excellent consultative advice on conducting assessments and testing. Attendees were able to engage in hands on use of helpful assessment tools to evaluate common risks that should be incorporated into emergency preparedness plans.
Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what some of the attendees had to say:
- I came to this Summit to learn how to implement our Emergency Preparedness Plan. I was very pleased with the speaker. Very knowledgeable, speaks clearly, pace was just right for me.
- Thank you for the excellent presentations! They were engaging and thorough and I can honestly say that this summit was a fantastic use of my time and will benefit my company.
- Overall, I learned so much from all the presentations and upon returning to work today, have begun reviewing our emergency preparedness plan so that I can apply what I learned during the summit.
- It was informational to speak and listen to other agencies and state partners for collaboration.
- Every presenter brought issues to our attention that we need to look at in more detail.
Did you miss out? Here’s a helpful resource guide!