NCHA: The Role of Hospitals in Emergency Preparedness and Significant Public Events

Hospitals play a key role in emergency readiness throughout North Carolina. As vital community resources, hospitals must be prepared alongside police, fire, rescue, and other public safety services for any scenario from natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires to pandemics, terrorism and mass casualty incidents like shootings. They also must prepare for, and respond to injuries and illness that might occur at mass gatherings like concerts and sporting events that attract large crowds. The North Carolina News Network's Kristine Bellino discusses this topic with Jonathan Davis, MPH, FACHE, the Chief Operating Officer of FirstHealth of the Carolinas and President of Moore Regional Hospital and Katherine Newell, M.D., an emergency medicine physician and Assistant Medical Director for FirstHealth EMS.