The First Post

Well there has to be a first post on every blog.  This blog will be focused specifically on Health Care Emergency Management.  A fairly new sub-specialty of Emergency Management, Health Care EM focuses on the specific needs facing hospitals, public health organizations, and other health care providers that need to maintain operations and/or provide care to patients before, during, or after a disaster.

I will post my opinions and thoughts about what happens in health care emergency management.  Appropriately now a little bit about me.  I have been working health care for over 10 years.  I have worked in hospitals, on the back of ambulances, in athletic training rooms, and various other arenas. Before my career started in health care I attended and graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelors of science in health and exercise science.  I am currently an EMT-I certified in the state of NC and a nationally certified athletic trainer working too add Certified Emergency Manager to my list of acronyms behind my name.  Discovering that a bachelors was not going to meet the needs of my career goals I returned to WFU for a Masters in Business Administration, graduating in the winter of 2008.  My MBA program really provided me with the catalyst I needed to move my career to the next level.

I am currently an Emergency Management Coordinator for a large multi-hospital health system in central North Carolina.  I also occasionally return to the world of EMS or sports medicine for active patient care but mostly focus on my work with the health system and my independent consulting.  I have specific interests in disaster communication infrastructure, medical surge capacity, and crisis communication. I will seldom refer to my employer and clients out of respect for their privacy and the sensitive nature of what happens during disasters and crisis.  I hope to share lessons learned and progressive ideas on this blog.

I welcome followers that provide healthy discussion and respectful commentary.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/healthcare_em 

Let the blog times begin.