All-Hazards Resilience for Nursing Stations and Health Centres

Background:

Health centres and nursing stations serve as the vital frontline of healthcare delivery in rural and remote First Nation communities. Operating far from urban hospitals, these all-in-one clinics, emergency rooms, and public health hubs must contend with several distinct operational pressures, such as geographic isolation, workforce and staffing dynamics, and infrastructure capacity failures. 

When a crisis or a disaster strikes, and there are no nearby health facilities, alternative supply chains, or immediate emergency response teams to come to the rescue, a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a mission-critical tool for First Nation community health centres and nursing stations, because it ensures that critical, life-saving operations can continue independently during unpredictable disruptions.

Purpose: 

The All-Hazards Resilience: Business Continuity Planning Session, for Health Centres and Nursing Stations—aims to support your executive team in facilitating an organization-wide, human-centric business continuity planning process, with its staff and frontline workers. 

This two (2) day working session will enable you to establish a holistic governance structure, for business continuity planning, in your health centre or nursing station; conduct a human-centric business impact analysis for each program or service; develop continuity plans and arrangements for critical and non-critical services; review, test and update your business continuity plan, and communicate critical information and decisions—directly, effectively and without delay.

Linking Emergency Preparedness to Business Continuity Planning—Transitioning from traditional Emergency Preparedness Planning to an organization-wide Business Continuity process is essential to ensuring continued delivery of critical services to community members. Emergency preparedness plans act as the immediate, first-phase trigger. During tabletop simulations, teams will practice navigating the exact moment the Emergency response plan transitions into BCP mode. 

Objectives: 

This BCP Working session allows participants to develop a written plan document that includes:

1. A human-centric business impact analysis (HC-BIA) to identify critical individuals and positions,  services, assets, and dependencies;
2. Response, recovery and mitigation measures, with trauma-counselling triggers embedded directly into the incident response checklist, to deal with the crisis, trauma and disaster impacts of unpredictable disruptions; 
3. Planning and response team(s) identification, including key contact and notification lists;
4. Roles, responsibilities and tasks of BCP coordinators and team members;
5. Community-owned partnerships for the alternate delivery and recovery of critical services;
6. Procedures for testing, updating and maintaining the BCP;
7. A Communication Plan to disseminate critical information and decisions.

Human-Centric Business Impact Analysis (HC-BIA)—A human-centric business continuity plan treats people, including health centre or nursing station staff, health personel and frontline workers, as the community’s most fragile, critical and valuable assets. HC-BIA serves to inform, prioritize, and activate the Business Continuity Plan, and determines how the community will respond to a crisis, emergency or disaster.

Suggested discussion topics and scenarios:

    • Information Technology (IT) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Downtime Procedures;  

    • Workforce Shortages and Unavailability of Staff Procedures (Cascading Standby Systems);

    • Utility and Lifeline Failure Protocols (Power Outages, Gaz Leaks, Water Contamination, IT Breakdowns);

    • Medical Supply Chain Breaches and Disruptions (Manufacturing, Temperature Control, Distribution);

    • Facility Inaccessibility and Alternative Care Sites (Decentralized Modes of Operation);

    • Other self-identified discussion topics or disruption scenarios.

Intended Public and Process:

Audience: Tribal Governments, more particularly Local First Nation Authorities and their executive teams, administrative staff, health personnel and frontline workers.   

Duration: 2 Day Work Session—Including breakout and interactive sessions.

Post-Session Consultation: Consultations are optional and at your discretion. 

Financial Overview:

Professional Facilitation Fee: $1,890 CAD per day.

Travel expenses: The ticket price does not include standard business travel, meals, and lodging expenses for the facilitator(s) during preparation and on-site delivery.

Cancellation Timeline and Fees:

30+ Days Notice: Full refund minus a $150 administration fee.

15 to 29 Days Notice: 50% refund, or a 75% credit toward a future workshop.

14 Days or Fewer Notice: Non-refundable. No credits will be issued.