OasisLMS

Thursday, July 16
10 a.m.-noon

Laura A. Dixon, BS, JD, RN, CPHRM

Laura A. Dixon served as the director of risk management and patient safety for the Colorado Region of Kaiser Permanente. Prior to joining Kaiser, she served as the director, facility patient safety and risk management and operations for COPIC from 2014 to 2020. In her role, she provided patient safety and risk management consultation and training to facilities, practitioners, and staff in multiple states.

Dixon has more than 20 years of clinical experience in acute care facilities, including critical care, coronary care, peri-operative services, and pain management. Prior to joining COPIC, she served as the director, Western region, patient safety and risk management for The Doctors Company in Napa, California. In this capacity, she provided patient safety and risk management consultation to the physicians and staff for the western United States

As a registered nurse and attorney, Dixon holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Regis University, RECEP of Denver, a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Drake University College of Law, Des Moines, Iowa, and a Registered Nurse Diploma from Saint Luke’s School Professional Nursing, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  She is licensed to practice law in Colorado and California.

This speaker has no real or perceived conflicts of interest that relate to this presentation

A Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA) should be more than an annual spreadsheet exercise. When done correctly, the HVA can support the planning, training, exercises, mitigation strategies, resource allocation, leadership decisions, and operational readiness of a hospital’s emergency management program.

This session will walk participants through a practical, hospital-centered approach to conducting a realistic HVA. Participants will learn how to select the right committee, gather meaningful resources, identify and categorize hazards, define operational impact, evaluate preparedness, rate hazards, and turn findings into action. Additionally, the session will explain how to keep the HVA current through annual review and post-event updates.

This session will help hospitals move beyond checking the HVA box and build a process that reflects real risk, real preparedness, and real action.

At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to:

• Identify the multidisciplinary committee members needed to conduct a meaningful hospital HVA.
• Gather and organize internal, local, regional, and external resources to better understand realistic hazards facing the hospital.
• Define the operational impact of hazards on patient care, staffing, utilities, access, safety, supplies, vendors, and continuity of operations.
• Evaluate preparedness beyond the existence of a plan, including training, exercises, backup systems, supplies, internal response capability, external partnerships, and mutual aid.
• Use HVA findings to drive action, including plan updates, training priorities, exercises, mitigation efforts, resource requests, and leadership decisions.
• Maintain the HVA as a living document by reviewing it annually and after real events, drills, near misses, and operational disruptions.

The Georgia Hospital Association Research & Education Foundation is an approved provider of nursing home administrator credits as a professional trade association in long term care under Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 393-13-.02, (1) (a).  Approved for 2 contact hours.