Leading Organizational Change: Implementation of the Hospital Incident Command System
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Author
Michel, Beth
Date
2009
Degree
Master of Leadership Development
Abstract
Acceptance of the federal grant money obligates Lutheran to implement the HICS
structure and transition to a more effective emergency response method than the one currently in
place. As a result, policies and procedures have been changed to comply with the structure. Full
implementation of HICS and FastCommand at Lutheran will change the way the organization
responds to unplanned events. Unplanned events in healthcare are understood to refer to any
situation outside the normal daily processes, including emergencies such as fires or winter
storms, infant abductions, or disease outbreaks. As with any organization, change can be met
with resistance and a culture of uncertainty, especially when processes differ from “the way
we’ve always done it.”
To succeed in the implementation of HICS, it is imperative that the hospital’s leadership,
comprised of administrative staff and department directors, support this change and prioritize
emergency preparedness. An extension of Lutheran’s mission statement includes several action
statements designed to show the hospital’s commitment to healthcare and to the community,
including: “Continually exploring, developing and implementing new concepts and re-evaluating
existing programs in the interest of improved services and optimized use of resources.”
Implementation of HICS will test that statement and allow real action to occur. Unfortunately, at
the time of this paper, while hospital administration has voiced support for the initiative, few
have volunteered for readily available FastCommand training, which is the first step towards
understanding the HICS structure. How to create a framework for an administrative culture change with regards to organizational emergency response is this paper’s problem statement.