HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Creating an emergency management plan
Dr. Laurie Mazurik

Ontario CritiCall Program disaster planning
Karen Bachynski

OSACH emergency management: A guide for the protection of health care and community care workers
Fiona P. Macpate

Emergency management & public communications through media relations
Christine A. Clark

Operational emergency preparedness: Best practices for employee education, training and exercises
Tom Davis
Brenda Conway

Developing a community-wide plan
Andre Luc Beauregard

Patient transportation systems
Dr. Laurie Mazurik

Dr. Mazurik is Medical Director of Education, Division of Pre-Hospital Care at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Science Centre. Dr. Mazurik has twelve years experience on staff with the Department of Emergency Services, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences. During that time she has organized major multi-service disaster simulation exercises, each with over 200 participants. They include a shooting with multiple casualties in a school (Jan. 2003), a terrorist attack on a university campus involving sarin gas and a car bomb (April 2004) and a chemical plant explosion (Oct. 2004). Laurie is also the undergraduate coordinator for Emergency Medicine for the University of Toronto at Sunnybrook.

A seasoned communications veteran, Christine Clark has more than 22 years experience in the field of corporate communications with 15 years as a leading communications professional in the hospital sector. As the Chief Communications Officer for the Niagara Health System, Ontario's largest multi-site hospital amalgamation with seven hospital sites, more than 4,300 employees, 500 medical staff members, Christine manages a diverse communications portfolio which includes issues management, government relations, public affairs, media relations, community relations, internal communications as well as French-language services. As Chief Communications Officer, Christine is a member of the health system's senior executive team. In May 2004, Christine received a coveted Woman of Distinction Award from the YWCA for her exemplary community contributions and leadership in the field of Public Affairs and Communications. In 1999, she served as the Chief Communications Director for the 1999 World Rowing Championships - an international pre-Olympic championship event hosted at Henley Island in St. Catharines.

Melissa Clarke is the Emergency Preparedness & Environmental Management System Coordinator for Trillium Health Centre. Prior to joining Trillium in March of 2002, Melissa had been working as an Environmental Consultant, helping to implement Environmental Management Systems and draft Sustainable Development Strategies for government agencies. Previously, she worked as an Environmental Specialist implementing the Department of National Defence - North Warning System - Environment and Emergency Management System, and to have it registered to the ISO 14001 standard. Melissa is actively involved in Emergency Preparedness Planning in the Region of Peel, and served as cochair of the Peel Healthcare Emergency Planning Committee until January 2006. Melissa is a graduate of the Carleton University with Bachelor's of Environmental Science and Legal Studies.

Brenda Conway is the Emergency Management Coordinator CBRN/Pandemic Response person for Kingston General Hospital. Brenda has been a registered nurse at Kingston General for 21 years, working the last 10 years in the Emergency Department, and continues to maintain her competency and certification by attending a variety of courses and seminars. Brenda holds her National Emergency Nursing Certification of Excellence and is an Instructor in the Nursing Trauma Core Course. Recently joining the Emergency Planning and Life Safety Program, she brings her nursing expertise to develop the CBRN and Pandemic Programs at Kingston General Hospital.

Tom Davis is the Supervisor, Emergency Planning & Life Safety at Kingston General Hospital and has worked in the security field for more than 14 years. Tom graduated from the Loyalist College Law & Security Program and has continued to upgrade his skills by attending numerous provincial, federal and university-based emergency preparedness and life safety training programs. He is a key player in the development of the hospital's emergency procedures, exercise development and staff training and drills.

Fiona is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional providing occupational health and safety consulting services to the healthcare and community care sector as a consultant with the Health Care Health and Safety Association of Ontario. She received her Masters of Health Science in Occupational and Environmental Health from the Department of Community Health at the University of Toronto. Fiona has been providing consulting and training services to member firms in the Peel and Halton Region since 1999. In addition, she has authored and co-authored several occupational health and safety resources and is currently leading a project for the development of a value-added occupational health and safety resource for emergency management for the healthcare and community care sector.

Karen has been with the Ontario CritiCall Program since its inception in 1996. Prior to that, she worked with the Hamilton regional emergency program (R.E.A.C.H.) from which the provincial CritiCall system evolved. Over the past 10 years Karen has overseen the organization's call centres and patient aspects of the programs. Karen also co-designed and maintained the provincial patient database. Karen was recently appointed Regional Project Manager for the Toronto/GTA and is responsible for all hospitals within that region.

Andre Beauregard is the Supervisor, Emergency Programs for the Region of Peel. He has been involved in Emergency Management and Disaster Response since 1999. His Emergency Management experience includes 9/11 with the Canadian Red Cross, SARS I with Emergency Management Ontario, and SARS II, 2003 Blackout, GTAA Air France Incident with Peel Public Health. During his tenure with Peel Public Health, Andre developed an Incident Management System, which was utilized to respond to a large infectious disease outbreak. Andre is currently working with Peel Public Health in developing an Inter-Agency Pandemic Influenza Management Plan.