What do a City Attorney, an evironmental specialist, and an emergency manager have to do with the San Francisco Water Department? It was, admittedly, a very unusual partnership but we all shared a common interest: deep wells. One of the main concerns I had as Director of Emergency Services for San Francisco was water. San […]
One of my favorite heroes growing up was Robin Hood. I was nurtured on the TV show starring Richard Greene (yeah, showing my age) and later enjoyed reading the stories about Robin and his Merry Men, particularly those in my "Best in Children's Books" that had some really neat artwork. And when I saw Errol […]
At the recent annual conference for the International Association of Emergency Managers I was fortunate to hear presentations by a number of the major academics supporting our profession. One thing that struck me was the similar views expressed by Dr. Dennis Miletti, a sociologist, and Dr. Brian Fagan, a historian specializing historical climate change. Both […]
San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi Photo: SF Chronicle As many of my readers know, I generally do not follow stories, preferring to draw lessons from events rather than to report them. However, the story of the missing patient found dead at San Francisco General Hospital several weeks ago continues to evolve and to offer […]
Download The Upside of Disasters Oct 2013
Last week I wrote about the finding at San Francisco General of the body of a patient who had been missing for almost two weeks. Since then, the team at SF General has done an excellent job of managing the crisis. Here are some of the key lessons: Show empathy. Displaying empathy with the victim and […]
It's every hospital administrator's nightmare: the unexplained death of a patient under the hospital's care. However, it does provide a good case study in crisis management. Read what is known about the case and then share your thoughts in the comments section. Over two weeks ago, a patient was admitted to San Francisco General Hospital […]
One of the hardest things for a manager to do is to set priorities. We face an array of conflicting demands on our limited resources and are often confronted with things that are urgent but not important as opposed to things that are important but not urgent. It becomes almost impossible to set priorities when […]