20-Year Anniversary of 911 and National Emergency Preparedness Month
Not only is it National Emergency Preparedness month, but it is the 20-year anniversary of 9/11. In many ways as a country, we are still not prepared for the events that transpired on September 11, 2001.

Sometimes, I wonder, how has it been 20 years since 9/11? Like me, most Americans can remember that day as if it were yesterday — our whereabouts, what we were doing, and the horrific tragedy is engraved in our minds for eternity. Somehow, the US managed to get through the harrowing minutes, hours, and days of the rest of that week.

I vividly remember the Thursday after 9/11. I chaired a hospital, home health, and long-term care committee. Our conversation revolved around 9/11, not only the travesty surrounding the attack but how ill-prepared America was for both disasters and terrorist attacks. Our healthcare committee quickly identified gaps in emergency preparedness where our group could potentially make a positive impact. 

Several months passed and our committee began to grow. We began our grassroots efforts to work on one gap: healthcare mutual aid and plans for evacuation, transportation, and relocation of healthcare facilities in the event of a disaster or emergency. Since our community was in between O’Hare and Chicago, we knew we were a prime target for terrorist events, technological, and natural disasters. 

A few years passed as our committee and subcommittees met monthly or more frequently to work on our goals. We succeeded in creating not only a Mutual Aid System but an Evacuation Plan for our healthcare communities. The Mutual Aid and Evacuation Plan helped ensure that the medical needs of patients and residents were met throughout the evacuation, transportation, and relocation processes. Our committee had taken what was first a concept and had carried the concept all the way through to fruition.

Word was spreading quickly about the great work we were doing. Organizations that normally competed for business were now playing in the same sandbox, working together for the greater good of the community. This is how the Collaborative Healthcare Urgency Group, “CHUG” was created. 

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be the CEO and founder of such a fantastic organization nor that I would get “hooked” on emergency preparedness. I literally feel like it is in my genes and CHUG is my passion, my heart, and my soul! 

CHUG offers the complete emergency preparedness package for healthcare organizations. CHUG assists healthcare organizations maintain compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) emergency preparedness regulations and Life Safety emergency preparedness surveys throughout the US. CHUG provides preparedness education, training, response services; including but not limited to recovery, restoration, evacuation/mutual aid services, and Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program Exercises.

Although CHUG has accomplished so much, there are still huge gaps in emergency preparedness in healthcare. The pandemic, recent hurricane Ida, and flood damage are just some examples of how countries are not prepared for these types of unplanned events. After 20 years of working in this field, it is difficult to watch the news and see that healthcare patients have died from being evacuated and transferred to places that are ill-prepared to manage their medical needs. This should not happen. There are solutions and CHUG is one of those solutions. 

I urge you or someone from your healthcare organization to reach out to CHUG to assist your team to be prepared for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and disasters. You may also contact me; Connie Polke info@chugteam.org. 20 years later I am on a new mission; to prepare our US healthcare organizations. 

— Connie Polke, founder, Collaborative Healthcare Urgency Group