Veoci Blog

Public safety telecommunicators also play important roles in EOCs across the country; their functions within the EOC supply critical information to emergency managers, other EOC players, and citizens as part of the response process. Let’s take a look at that role during this year's National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

With just under 59,000 enrolled students and over 19,000 employees, planning and responding to the pandemic have been a challenge, but the NYU team has found a way of controlling the situation and maintaining a common operating picture throughout the organization.

Despite how prone an agency, municipality, or community is to earthquakes, it’s possible to prepare. Many states and areas across the US dedicate February to earthquake awareness, hoping to prepare their residents and stakeholders for these events.

Maintaining a sense of normalcy for students throughout this pandemic has continued to be a priority. School districts have been doing all that they can to ensure their students can continue with their education, while maintaining their safety. Chris McLaughlin, Emergency Management Coordinator for Keller Independent School District (ISD) and his team have made sure to adjust day-to-day operations to guarantee that not only can students get back to school, but stay safe in school.

Preparedness is important in every industry. But it’s especially so in healthcare, as many people’s health and safety rely on the continuity of services and operations.

That COVID-19 vaccine will need to be distributed, and local organizations may be tapped to help out. Colleges and universities may be part of that cohort. Participating schools will need to run points of distribution (PODs) to accomplish this. And if a school’s staff is unfamiliar with this type of operation, a practice run is worth their time.

Lately, things are moving weirdly fast. We’re less than 3 months away from that December deadline. So if your organization does have leftover funds from the CARES Act to spend, how can your team best use those funds?

The incident command system (ICS), however, was developed in the 1970s, and while it’s been used and occasionally updated through the decades, it’s a good time to ask if we should update it again or if we can identify and address any of its shortcomings.

While emergency managers can effectively and efficiently respond to incidents and disasters, they can’t prevent events from happening. While it’s rare, emergencies can overlap and stress the response infrastructure emergency management teams have implemented at their organizations. What strategies can emergency managers use to respond to these unusual scenarios?

One of the most used pieces of tech in this industry are CADs (computer-aided dispatch systems). However, CADs are often closed systems that capture all the data emergency services need. But there is an opportunity for these systems (depending on how they're built) to integrate with other tools employed by emergency services.

The Joint Commission helps ensure hospitals meet certain preparedness standards through an accreditation program. The commission’s surveyor will score the hospital, determining if they receive the stamp fo approval. Inspections are random, however, compounding the need for hospitals to always be prepared for disasters (and a Joint Commission surveyor by extension).

Roughly 1.4 million people gather in the streets of New Orleans every year to partake in the Mardi Gras festivities. And while it's a culturally rich event, the nature of the celebration makes it easy to see how things could go wrong. The emergency management department and first responders in New Orleans have to be well prepared for Carnival season. 

Think of all the departments and organizations you have operating within your jurisdiction. Currently, each organization is likely functioning independently, with brief communication crossovers with other departments when necessary. But what if you could bring all of these entities under a single umbrella?

January is a key time for many emergency managers in higher education (and other industries). Your budget will soon be due, and it’s time to consider how your department’s funds should be spent. If you want new tech or just resources to help your program grow, now’s the time to push for them. Getting those resources depends, however, on strategically constructing your budget.

Today’s platforms are extremely robust, offering emergency managers multiple tools and flexibility during both daily operations and emergencies. And to do this, these platforms take advantage of today’s most enabling computing technology, which includes the cloud.

Recently that world has been watching, and lending a helping hand when possible, as Australia is ravaged by wildfires. Australian citizens have lost their homes, businesses, and loved ones to the raging flames, and wildlife on the island may never be the same. As Australia battles these bushfires, one question is on many people’s minds: What can we do to prevent a wildfire crisis of this magnitude from happening again?