• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

VHA Health Foundation Unveils New Online Disaster Communications Compendium to Help Hospitals Manage During a Crisis

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 November 2006, 12:00 CST

The VHA Health Foundation today debuted a new online compendium of tools and resources to help hospitals plan for and manage communications in times of natural or man-made disasters. The resource can be found at www.vhahf.org.

The VHA Health Foundation Disaster Communications Compendium is designed to streamline the process of communications planning by providing an organized, easy-to-use, one-stop resource to the vast amount of information available on disaster planning.

"Hospitals are magnets during times of disaster. Clear, straightforward communication is critical. A lot of information has been created to help hospital executives prepare for disasters, but it takes hours and even days to wade through it all. We found many hospitals were reinventing the wheel because they couldn't find what already had been done," said Linda DeWolf, president of VHA Health Foundation. "So, we developed this Compendium to ease the communications planning process by putting the best tools and information all in one place online."

The Compendium is part of the Foundation's ongoing efforts to support hospitals as they prepare for disasters. To create the resource, the Foundation analyzed a wealth of existing resources from hospitals, associations, think tanks and government agencies to find the most relevant and useful data, templates and resources. This was then compiled into a simple resource tailored to the needs of hospital communications officers and senior executives involved in disaster planning.

Topics included in the compendium include:

 --  Award-winning case studies from experienced hospitals --  Tips for talking to the media --  Disaster preparedness resources and tools from hospitals such as     Memorial Hermann, Scripps Health and St. Luke's Regional Medical Center      

Among the case studies is the award-winning work by Ochsner Clinic Foundation, which came to be recognized throughout the country as a "Beam of Hope" in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. With the city under water, electricity out, cell phone towers down and people pouring through into the Emergency Room for help, the Ochsner communications team managed to cope with the ongoing crisis and provide one of the few reliable sources of information for the community and the nation. The heroic story of their work, the preparation that paid off and their tips for fellow communications professionals can be found in the Compendium.

The Foundation is hosting a disaster preparedness forum in New Orleans at the end of November. This forum was created exclusively for Chief Executive Officers and hospital senior leaders to share experiences and learn about best practices to facilitate better planning for natural disasters or attacks. Preparing for the Next Disaster: A Hospital Leadership Forum is set for Nov. 29-30, 2006 and will include discussions led by top disaster preparedness experts including former FEMA director, James Lee Witt; Assistant Secretary of Health, Admiral John O. Agwunobi, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H.; and CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper.

"For hospitals across the country, few needs are greater than the need to improve disaster preparedness," added DeWolf. "This compendium and conference are designed to fully address this need."

For more information about the VHA Health Foundation's disaster preparedness efforts, visit www.vhahf.org.

 Contacts: Lynn Gentry 972/830-0798 Contact via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=DC4CFDCE79C000E7  Cecilia Arradaza 202/609-6002  

SOURCE: VHA

Source: MARKET WIRE

More News in this Category