May 1-7 is Emergency Preparedness Week at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC). This year’s theme is “Be Ready for Anything”. Throughout the week we will share information related to emergency preparedness at TBRHSC and tips for personal emergency preparedness.
Safety Huddle—Lessons Learned from January 3rd Flooding Incident:
A Code Red to Code Green was initiated the evening of January 3, 2022. During routine cleaning, a sprinkler head was activated, triggering the fire alarm. Water deluge from the sprinkler head resulted in the need to evacuate patients from 2C, 2B, and 1C. Thanks to the efforts of responders throughout the hospital, all patients were safely transported away from the flooding and building damage was limited to these three units.
A formal debrief was conducted with input from staff and leadership involved in the incident to determine lessons learned. The following are a number of actions process reminders to improve future response efforts. Check out the Safety Huddle for more information on lessons learned and process reminders!
Preparedness Spotlight:
Every emergency code at TBRHSC involves the Switchboard team. When staff dial ‘55’ to report an emergency, it triggers a series of actions by Switchboard. Depending on the Code initiated, Switchboard may be responsible for multiple actions such as overhead paging, fielding calls to emergency services, connecting with the Senior Leader on call or Admin Coordinator.
We asked Switchboard how they help to ensure that TBRHSC is Ready for Anything.
Trina Diner (Manager):
“Switchboard operators are #ReadyforAnything! Between one and three operators take calls at any given time, connecting people over 1500 times per day. In addition to handling individual calls (from across the region, locally and internationally!), operators are integral parts of any emergency response. In 2021, 690 Codes were called, each Code requiring its own process and duties for operators to perform.”