Brian Saul
Director of Crisis & Emergency Management Planning, Ohio Health
Life Safety Code Surveyor, The Joint Commission
Brian shares his experiences in the command center and how his organization is dealing with the challenges created by COVID-19.
Backup and support for one another
“We developed a structure around having days off because we are operating 7 days a week. We mandated people have three deep backup to themselves as well as a person who never comes to the command center, but works from home and stays up-to-date in case they need to step in, they can. We’ve modeled this at all our care sites as well so, there is redundancies for all the positions working in the command center. It does allow you to get away for a few days and take some time away from the process and the things you’re working on and get some rest.”
“There’s a lot of support in our command centers for one another and overcoming obstacles, so when you have something you’re struggling with, there are a lot of people sitting there ready to help and are really stepping even out of there comfort zones to help others, and that includes the people at our care site level. It’s very encouraging to have people from all levels of the organization, and we have redeployed a lot of people who were working in other roles that are not actively working because of this COVID event, to help with special projects related to COVID and their response has been nothing less than enthusiastic. From a support level, it’s been tremendous to see everyone stepping forward and wanting to assist with that.”