By Dave Sinkinson

Hospitals and healthcare organizations are well-acquainted with emergency scenarios. On any given day, those that work in health systems treat patients effected by pandemics, severe weather, civil unrest, mass casualty incidents, and other crisis events. They are also grappling with the fallout from today’s well-documented mental health issues. Healthcare workers do an incredible job rendering care to all those who flock to hospital emergency rooms, urgent care facilities, and other medical facilities. And yet these unsung heroes are feeling less safe in their roles these days. In fact, a recent survey of 500 healthcare professionals including, doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators shows that 42% of healthcare workers have experienced a violent incident while simply trying to do their job.

The uptick in violence in the healthcare setting warrants scrutiny and action, and one of the best ways to implement positive safety changes is within the Hospital Incident Command system (HICS), the invaluable framework that has helped make the healthcare industry a safety-savvy sector.

While the emergency preparedness and response steps outlined in HICS are solid, the way health systems update and utilize the policies, workflows, and crisis communications found within HICS could use some attention. For example, considering the innovative times we live in, how is it possible that health systems still rely on outdated tools including paper manuals, phone tree lists, and legacy communication systems as part of their emergency management strategy? When crisis events are unfolding, seconds matter and these dated approaches result in a slow moving, rigid, and laborious incident command flow. Furthermore, manual processes don’t help healthcare safety practitioners with key components of HICS compliance such as quorums and incident reporting. In the healthcare environment, speed, efficiency and outcomes are critical. Shouldn’t that same level of scrutiny be given to a health system’s incident command process?

Transforming the preparation process
During the emergency preparedness process, laying out roles and responsibilities is important, but what happens when an actual incident occurs? Do staff have the resources they need to organize and act on their respective tasks? During the pre-planning phase, it’s acceptable to seek out hard copies of documents and unearth step by step task lists, but that’s a luxury not afforded to those in the thick of an emergency.


Virtually every industry has benefitted from the use of technology including the healthcare world. Digitizing electronic health records (EHRs), for example, has proven to be a transformative tool for countless healthcare organizations. Similarly, technology can also help hospitals modernize their HICS strategies as evidenced by the Mayo Clinic which has been transforming their world class operations by digitizing HICS to-do lists and automating compliance steps. The result has been streamlined workflows, permission-based real time communication, and the flexibility to seamlessly handle any situation that arises in or around nearly 600 Mayo Clinic centers.

Transforming emergency communication
During an emergency, up-to-date information is not only important for getting first responders up to speed, it’s essential for keeping stakeholders informed as the situation evolves. When employing a traditional HICS approach, hospitals that rely on one or a limited number of channels to get critical emergency information out can run into trouble if workers are on the move and not in proximity to those communication channels.

Hospitals need a robust mass notification system that extends beyond SMS messages, emails or intranet sites. Emergency notifications should also factor in PA announcements, desktop alerts, digital signage and other modalities to get messages out quickly. For example, in the healthcare worker safety survey noted earlier, those that work in health systems indicated they would feel more prepared for emergency events if they were notified via panic button technology, customized text alerts or a safety app.

Transforming compliance
When hospitals utilize more robust, integrated and automated mass notification systems, they not only efficiently inform personnel about emergencies, they can also track everything. Another benefit of digitizing HICS processes is the ability to see how and when things transpired. Healthcare safety and security leaders can see when notifications were sent, who received them, which members of the incident command staff completed assigned roles, or if a responsibility was assumed by a next-in-line colleague when the task was not immediately accomplished. This level of detail not only helps in the moment and when meeting compliance expectations, it can identify where improvements and greater efficiencies might be needed moving forward.

Transforming emergency management for today
The last few years have undeniably impacted the healthcare industry and workers. From Covid-19 to natural disasters to increasingly hostile working environments, healthcare employees are seeing greater personal safety challenges these days. With so much volatility in hospitals today, digitizing HICS plans just makes sense for greater emergency management efficiencies and safer healthcare settings.

About the author: Dave Sinkinson is the VP of mobile at Rave Mobile Safety.