Maintaining Resiliency in 2023

What challenges will the New Year bring?

January 03, 2023

It’s hard to believe we have reached the start of another year. During the pandemic, our overall sense of time can feel fluid, as we respond to one emergency after another. Maybe it’s just me, but 2022 was quite a year, and one word comes to mind: resiliency.

Last year, we faced the continued impacts of the pandemic. Staffing challenges and the Omicron variant made for a difficult combination as we saw record caseloads at the start of the year. We don’t know what emergencies—COVID-19 or otherwise—we will face during 2023, but we know we have to stay ready.

The early-season return of RSV and the flu provided the latest example of the strain our hospitals are facing and how our response priorities can shift quickly. We’ve seen how fast our emergency departments can fill and exacerbate existing staffing challenges. We have all learned lessons from COVID-19 to combat the surge of respiratory illnesses and are finding creative ways to reduce the burden.

As we think about emergency preparedness during 2023, we know that we must stay vigilant. The American Hospital Association recently hosted a panel discussion on “the next wave of emergency preparedness,” which highlighted three priority areas for health care leaders:

• Strengthening cross-sector partnerships
• Building workforce capacity and resilience
• Fostering a culture of preparedness

These three priorities support our staff, our patients, and our communities. Resilience has been the key attribute for our teams during the pandemic and heading into 2023. Emergencies come in many different forms—from natural disasters to public health crises to cyber security breaches—and we know there will be many more. In emergency management, we pride ourselves on our ability to respond to the uncertainty and tackle these unforeseen events through planning, collaboration, and execution of our carefully crafted plans.

The start of the year is a great time to review your resilience plans. These plans should always include detailed action steps and identify who is accountable to make critical emergency business decisions and initiate your emergency processes. Knowing that these plans are in place, you should feel secure knowing you are ready for whatever comes next. HAP’s emergency management is here to support your resilience and emergency planning needs.

If you’re interested in learning more about 2023 emergency preparedness and resiliency planning, contact me or HAP’s Emergency Management team for more information.