You probably already know about this, but…the threats just keep on coming
By Steve MacArthur, Hospital Safety Consultant
Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any more dramatic (we even had an earthquake this morning in Southern New England—I don’t know that I had ever knowingly experienced one before), but a warning from the Feds regarding nefarious “actors” (I placed that in quotation marks as an homage to my friend, and former editor, Scott Wallask) attempting to target healthcare facilities, et al. I’m sure your IT folks are all over this, but I’m thinking that if you were looking for a non-COVID-related emergency response exercise scenario, evaluating your organization’s response to this latest threat might be worth a look-see. It will be interesting to see how this develops over time as a subtext to everything else that’s going on. If you’re looking for greater detail, I think you’ll find these links useful:
It seems unlikely that this will be the last time we hear about such attacks.
In other preparedness news, under the category of “other things that happen while you’re busy responding to a pandemic,” there was a “hard landing” of a helicopter on the roof of USC Keck Medical Center out in Los Angeles. Fortunately, no one was badly injured, but it just goes to show you that (and it seems particularly so this year) you never know what’s coming next.
Hope you all are well and staying safe!
About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Greeley Company in Danvers, Mass. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is contributing editor for Healthcare Safety Leader. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.