Emergency Preparedness

Code Orange is used to respond in a coordinated manner to a disaster external to the hospital that is likely to increase the capacity and use of hospital resources, such as mass casualty incidents.

Nipawin Hospital was one of the three acute care sites which first received casualties from the collision of the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team.

Learning Objective:
• How one rural facility responded to a large mass casualty event

Linda Brothwell
Facility Administrator, Acute Care
Nipawin Hospital
Saskatchewan Health Authority

Every Code Orange has its own unique and varying factors, with the basic emergency preparedness plans outlining what a facility’s response should be in a Code Orange situation. In this session, the panelists will provide a brief overview of the incidents, describe how they implemented code orange, and discuss the lessons learned from each incident.

Learning Objective:
• How different organizations implemented code orange, the roles, and responsibilities of all staff involved and all lessons learned from the post-event debriefing

• Sunnybrook Hospital – receiving patients from the Van attack in Toronto
• St. Michael’s Hospital – receiving patients after the Danforth shooting in Toronto
• Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) – receiving patients after a carbon monoxide leak at an elementary school

Claudia Cocco
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Emergency Preparedness Hospital Lead
Toronto Central LHIN

Dr. Elene Khalil
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
McGill University
Pediatric Emergency Specialist, Division of Emergency Medicine
Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH)
Director of Education
McGill University Health Center (MUHC)

Monica Jacobs
Senior Director, Enterprise Risk, Emergency Preparedness & Chief Privacy Officer
Unity Health Toronto (St. Michael’s Hospital)

Code Silver is a planned response to ensure the safety of all health care workers, patients and visitors at the hospital when an individual is in possession of a weapon and an enhanced police response is required.

Kingston Health Sciences Centre declared a Code Silver and  Kingston Police officers responded to the scene after multiple shots were fired in the Emergency Department of the Kingston General Hospital site around 6:00 p.m. on Monday, November 19, 2018.

Learning Objective:
• How the hospital responded to the incident and what policy changes were made after the incident

Rocky Prosser
Director Protection Services
Emergency Management, Security, & Life Safety
Kingston Health Sciences Center, Providence Care Hospital

Police officers spent hours at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga after an anonymous caller made a threat just before 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, claiming there was a bomb inside the parking garage.
Similar incidents happen at other hospitals, including Scarborough General Hospital.
The Code Black policy informs staff of appropriate actions to be taken in a bomb threat emergency in order to minimize damage and disruption to the facility and personnel. In this session, speakers from two organizations will provide a brief overview of the incidents, describe how they implemented code black, how they collaborated with the law-enforcement organization and discuss the lessons learned and how they have incorporated these lessons back into their policies and plans.

Learning Objective:
• How two organizations implemented code black, the roles, and responsibilities of all staff involved and all lessons learned from the post-event debriefing

Simon Bridgland 
Manager, Enterprise Risk and Emergency Preparedness
Trillium Health Partners

Andrew Moull 
Emergency Preparedness Specialist
Scarborough Health Network

An overview of the preparations that are undertaken across the NHS for responding to incidents involving hazardous materials: more details here. The speaker will cover the guidance documents produced, the equipment that is provided and the training to go along it. This presentation will be delivered via Skype.

Learning Objective:
• How other jurisdictions plan for, and respond to, incidents and emergencies involving HAZMAT and CBRN that could affect health or patient care

Peter Boorman
Regional Lead for Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response
NHS England – London Region

Incident Command Systems (IMS) have been used formally in hospitals for decades as a way to manage incidents, coordinate resources and communications, and collaborate with community-based response agencies. Despite their widespread adoption and use, there is very little knowledge of lessons learned, best practices, and real-world adaptation of these systems.

This session features a hospital who has experienced a recent emergency and activated its hospital-based incident command system. The speaker will provide a brief overview of the incident, describe how they implemented their incident command system and discuss tools and share lessons learned and how they have incorporated these lessons into their current systems and plans.

Learning Objective:
• How one organization implemented its IMS and how they keep improving it at the end of an incident

Kassondra Stockman
Emergency Preparedness Advisor
Halton Healthcare

Learning Objective:
• Delegates will learn from each other best practices in keeping the leadership of their organization up to date on IMS Procedures, so leadership is ready in time of emergencies

Some cybersecurity groups predict that the US health care sector will be a key focal point for cyber-attacks in the coming year, with increasingly sophisticated attacks emerging. But is this true for the Canadian health care system as well? Our speaker, Kenrick Bagnall is here to give us an insight into what he has learned in his role as, Cybercrime Investigator with the Toronto Police Service. Kenrick has also written the chapter entitled ‘Dealing With Law Enforcement’ in the recently published book, Cybersecurity In Canada, A Guide to Best Practices, Planning and Management.

Learning Objective:
• Statistics related to cybersecurity in Canadian health care organizations and best practices in responding to ransom requests

Kenrick Bagnall
Cybercrime Investigator
Toronto Police Service