We’re all shook up – for java and earthquake preparedness
Last week, Mark Phillips, Coastal’s Health Emergency Management BC Manager, issued a challenge to all Coastal employees to participate in this year’s ShakeOut BC exercise on Oct. 15. Mark provided an Exercise Guide to follow in order for us all to be better prepared in the case of a real emergency by helping us get the right resources, in the right place, at the right time.
Mark’s challenge was to get staff to send a fax to convey their status to the Emergency Operations Centre and highlight any support and resources they required to respond effectively via a form in the Exercise Guide (one for patient areas and a different one for non-patient areas).
Practice is important
“I want to thank everyone who took the time to participate and who sent in their status reports,” says Mark. “We received status reports from across the Coastal Community of Care, including Sechelt Hospital, Lions Gate Hospital and Bella Coola Hospital. It’s very important for us to practice how to protect ourselves during an earthquake. Equally important is how we work together to ensure staff and patient safety during a major disaster or emergency.”
To put an extra jolt into the exercise, VCH News offered a prize of coffee to encourage participation and inspire staff to send in a photo or two as well as a write a short paragraph describing their team’s learnings from the ShakeOut exercise.
Bella Coola rocks the ShakeOut
And the winner is… Bella Coola Hospital.
“On October 15, 27 Bella Coola General Hospital employees arrived promptly at the office area after an announcement on the overhead of a ‘drill’ for the Great BC Shakeout,” says Michel Bazille, Director, Bella Coola Hospital.
“We don’t even have an area that can accommodate 27 employees, but every department was represented and engaged in the scenario as presented by the VCH Emergency Preparedness team and took away a copy of the ‘Responder’ for bed time reading. There was great engagement and great participation. It is very rewarding to be part of such an engaged and terrific team.”
The winner gets a $25 Tim Hortons gift card, but because there is no Timmy’s in Bella Coola, we will make special arrangements.
For more information on emergency preparedness, visit the Health Emergency Management BC website.
Always on the job our Clive Camm is. Clive, Communications Leader – External Relations, never stopped working during the ShakeOut BC exercise last week. Or was that a call from his favourite coffee shop saying his special order had arrived?