How St. Joseph's Health Utilizes D4H Software for Emergency Management

Billy was recently joined by Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness at St. Joseph's Health, a premier hospital and healthcare network in New Jersey. Together, they discussed the role of D4H software in managing emergencies and Adam shared firsthand experiences of utilizing advanced technology to enhance patient care during critical situations. In this blog post, we learn how St. Joseph's Health achieves seamless coordination, real-time communication, and efficient resource allocation to ensure optimal outcomes in emergencies.

About St. Joseph's Health

St. Joseph's Health, a prominent New Jersey healthcare system established in 1867, provides comprehensive care to its community through a dedicated team of over 5,000 providers and 1,000 physicians.

The team at St. Joseph's Health is deeply committed to patient care, and that commitment extends to comprehensive emergency preparedness. As a large healthcare system with diverse facilities, including a Level II trauma center, off-site practices, and an ambulatory care center, St. Joseph's faces unique challenges in safeguarding patients, staff, and the community.

Leading the Emergency Management team is Adam Perper, Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness. With over two decades of experience in the field, Adam brings a wealth of knowledge to his role at St. Joseph's Health.

D4H & St. Joseph's Health 

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency management team at St. Joseph's recognized the need to revitalize their preparedness strategies. This included thoroughly reassessing existing emergency plans, policies, and resources. A key challenge they identified was the absence of a centralized system for managing and tracking crucial information and assets.

Before adopting emergency management software, St. Joseph's Health relied on manual methods like pen and paper, which hindered efficient communication and information sharing during critical incidents. Different departments, such as the trauma and emergency departments, often struggled to stay informed about unfolding events. This lack of real-time information hindered their ability to prepare and respond effectively.

Recognizing these challenges, St. Joseph's Health sought a technology solution to bridge these communication gaps and enhance its crisis management capabilities. They needed a platform to centralize information, facilitate seamless collaboration, and empower their teams to make informed decisions quickly.

By implementing D4H it has streamlined the workflow and provided the team with a centralized repository for all critical documents, ensuring easy access and version control for emergency plans and policies. Furthermore, it enables the accurate inventory and tracking of emergency supplies and equipment, guaranteeing that essential resources are readily available when needed.

With D4H, St. Joseph's Health is fostering a more resilient healthcare system, ready to confront any challenge and ensure the ongoing safety of their community.

"D4H provides us with the ability to manage an incident from any location, including from our homes if it is the middle of the night, which is a huge lift for our team" — Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness

Office of Emergency Management Tracker

St. Joseph's Health takes emergency preparedness seriously. They know that staying ahead of potential crises means having a clear picture of what's happening at all times. That's why with D4H Incident Management they've used an Incident Dashboard to develop an Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Tracker, a powerful tool that helps them monitor everything from local incidents and hospital diversions to internal meetings and training sessions. The tracker acts as a central hub for all emergency-related information.

This tracker isn't just about reacting to events as they unfold; it's about proactive planning and preparation. For instance, during the winter months, St. Joseph's uses the OEM Tracker to monitor "Code Blue" alerts, which are activated when temperatures drop below freezing. This allows them to coordinate with community partners who open warming shelters and ensure vulnerable populations are protected. They also keep tabs on nearby hospitals, tracking diversions and service disruptions to anticipate potential surges in patient volume.

The OEM Tracker also helps St. Joseph's manage day-to-day operations within their emergency management team. By centralizing information about critical units, department contacts, and meeting schedules, it streamlines communication and ensures everyone has access to the information they need, exactly when they need it. This level of organization and preparedness allows the team, to respond effectively to any challenge and prioritize the safety of their community.

St. Joseph's Meeting Tracker

In addition to using D4H status boards for their OEM tracker, the status boards also provide the team with a simple but effective way to keep everyone on the same page, using the boards as a 'Meeting Tracker'. This tool, integrated within their D4H, helps the team manage all aspects of their meetings, from scheduling and agendas to attendance and follow-up.

It works as a digital meeting notebook, accessible to the whole team. Instead of relying on scattered emails or printed documents, St. Joseph's uses the Meeting Tracker to store dates, times, locations, and even call-in information for every meeting. Easy to access the agenda on the fly, available at a moment's notice.

The team used the D4H API to integrate this with their existing tools. Since they use Microsoft Teams for their video conferencing, they simply add the meeting link directly into the tracker. This means anyone can join the meeting with a single click, whether they're on their laptop, tablet, or phone.  It's all about making communication as easy and efficient as possible. This simple tool has made a big difference for St. Joseph's, streamlining their workflow and ensuring everyone is always in the loop.  It's a great example of how technology can be used to enhance teamwork and communication, ultimately leading to better preparedness and response.

Since using D4H the overview of 2024 was the fact that our communication was above and beyond what it has ever been before, not just for mass communication, but for sharing information, it has truly made things a lot easier. — Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness

Situation Reports with D4H

St. Joseph's Health knows that when an emergency strikes, every second counts. That's why they rely on D4H Incident Management to streamline their situation reports and ensure everyone has the information they need, exactly when they need it. One of the key benefits of D4H is its flexibility. St. Joseph's emergency management team members can easily customize the platform to fit their specific needs, creating templates and forms that align with their internal processes.

This customizability has been a game-changer for St. Joseph's, allowing them to create situation reports that are clear, concise, and easy to understand. Whether it's a minor incident or a major event, their team can quickly generate reports that provide a snapshot of the situation, including key details like the location, the people involved, and the actions being taken.

"With D4H the ability for customizability and adapting it to our healthcare needs has been fantastic" — Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness

The situation reports can be updated in real time, so everyone stays informed as the incident evolves. This level of transparency and communication is crucial in any emergency, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and working together effectively. With D4H, St. Joseph's has found a tool that empowers them to manage incidents with confidence, ensuring the safety and well-being of their community.

"The reports can be created or updated on the fly and it works seamlessly." — Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness

Staff tracking

St. Joseph's Health takes a comprehensive approach to staffing its Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Their Incident Management Team comprises experienced directors and managers who are well-versed in emergency response protocols. helps them keep track of who's on duty and actively engaged in the platform.

With D4H, the team can easily see which members are online and actively participating in the response. This real-time visibility ensures that everyone is accounted for and engaged in their respective roles. They can also track who has logged in and accessed information, providing valuable insights into team engagement and platform utilization.

While they continue to refine their use of D4H for EOC staffing, it has already proven to be a valuable tool for managing their team and ensuring a coordinated response during emergencies.

Managing Healthcare Incidents with D4H

The St. Joseph's Emergency Management team adopted D4H software in early 2024 and experienced a swift and straightforward implementation. They were quickly up and running, utilizing D4H in both training exercises and real-life incidents.

By adopting the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) IRG Extension Pack within D4H, St. Joseph's Health has gained a robust framework for managing incidents. This pre-populated toolkit provides checklists and tasks that can be easily customized, ensuring their emergency response is organized and efficient.

IT Outage Incident

This year, St. Joseph's Health faced an IT outage incident, they were able to rely on D4H Incident Management to keep things running. With D4H Pre-Plans, the team had already created a "playbook" for dealing with IT disruptions. As the situation unfolded, they were able to add new tasks and information on the fly, ensuring everyone stayed informed and coordinated. Even though thousands of computers were down, the emergency management team at St. Joseph's kept could use their iPads and, their smartphones with the D4H app. This meant they could access critical information and update the situation report from anywhere, ensuring that communication never faltered.

During the IT outage incident, St. Joseph's Health utilized D4Hto manage resource requests effectively. They adapted templates from another healthcare organization, tailoring them to their specific needs. This allowed them to track and fulfill requests for various devices, such as desktops, laptops, and even those hidden in exam rooms! D4H provided a centralized platform to log and manage these requests, replacing the pen-and-paper method. This ensured that every request was documented, tracked, and ultimately marked as complete, bringing a new level of organization and efficiency to their incident response.

Mass Casualty Incident

During a recent full-scale exercise at their Patterson campus, St. Joseph's Health put D4H to the test in a simulated mass casualty incident. The incident involved a multi-vehicle accident that resulted in a surge of patients arriving at the hospital. The emergency department was suddenly flooded with people needing immediate care.

During the mass casualty incident, St. Joseph's Health used D4H to maintain a clear picture of the situation as it evolved. The platform's log feature allowed them to track everything in real-time They used D4H's Communication Log to keep track of everything happening, from patient transport and bed availability to staffing needs and resource requests.

For instance, when their public information officer was considering a social media post about the incident, they tagged the Incident Commander in the D4H log. This sent an instant notification to the commander, who could then review and approve the message before it went public. This streamlined communication and ensured everyone was on the same page.

D4H also proved invaluable for managing the ongoing IV fluid shortage. By logging updates and tagging relevant personnel like the chief medical officer and chief nursing officer, they ensured that everyone had access to the latest information.

The D4H log allowed the team to tag specific individuals or teams in these logs, sending instant notifications to their phones or computers. Allowing critical information to get to the right people immediately, whether it was an update on available ambulances or a request for additional medical supplies. It's all about keeping everyone in the loop and ensuring a coordinated response, even in the chaos of a simulated mass casualty event. D4H helps St. Joseph's Health manage the "people" side of emergencies, ensuring that everyone – from patients to staff – is accounted for and cared for.

"The log has been a phenomenal tool for everybody we are able to input data and tag those critical people so they get updated information immediately. " — Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness

Daily Operations with D4H

St. Joseph's Health is taking its emergency preparedness to the next level with D4H. Not just using it for incident management – they're incorporating it into their daily operations. Every morning, the team holds a safety huddle with directors and executives from all their facilities.  Previously, this involved printing out forms, filling them out by hand, and then scanning them to a network drive.

Now, with D4H, the workflow is now digitized. They can complete the safety huddle form on the fly, adding critical information and tagging relevant individuals for follow-up. This ensures that everyone stays informed and can address any issues promptly. It's a simple change that has made a big difference in their daily operations.

"The ease of use of D4H has been tremendous being able to adapt the plays to everyday use has been tremendous" — Adam Perper, the Director of Emergency Management & Preparedness

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