What Mattered in Health Care Emergency Management in 2024

Lessons in preparedness from 2024 will help us be ready for 2025

We are turning the page on another busy year in health care emergency management and preparing for all that lies ahead in the New Year.

As we close out 2024, let’s take some time to look back and understand what has occurred in the world of health care emergency management. Here are some notable events and trends in from the state and national level:

Workplace Violence

Unfortunately, we continued to see violence as an ongoing threat in our hospitals, are campuses, and in the greater health care space. As we head into 2025, we must identify ways to protect our health care teams from violence through smart partnerships, policies and legislative activity. We’re excited to broaden this work during the upcoming year.

The brazen murder of a health care insurance industry CEO in New York City shocked us and caused the hospital community to think even more deeply about our safety and security.

Response to Extreme Weather Events

The U.S. faced significant climate-related disasters in 2024, including record-breaking heatwaves, hurricanes, and flooding. Public health systems focused on climate adaptation measures, such as cooling centers and advanced warning systems. However, these events strained health care resources, emphasizing the need for long-term planning for climate resilience. Some areas of Pennsylvania saw catastrophic flooding over the summer while other areas suffered from drought and water conservation orders in the fall and winter.

Misinformation

Misinformation around health emergencies, such as vaccine safety and disaster response protocols, continued to be a significant barrier. It was difficult for professionals, let alone members of the public, to identify trustworthy information during evolving incidents such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which likely hampered response and recovery efforts. Campaigns by organizations like the CDC sought to counteract false narratives, enhancing public trust and cooperation during emergencies.

Updated Guidance and Regulations

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) continued its work on updating the National Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities. A key focus of the 2017–2022 Capabilities was defining the role of health care coalitions (HCC) during response. The updated Capabilities will take a step further, defining the HCCs, core members—hospitals, EMS, emergency management organizations, public health agencies—and guiding them on what they will need to do to build a truly ready health care delivery system.

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Health continued the process to update the regulations governing hospitals, including the sections addressing emergency services and fire and disaster response.

Supply Chain

Just when we thought that supply chain resilience couldn’t get worse after COVID-19, the health care system saw several disruptions. Hurricanes in the southern U.S. impacted critical manufacturing and distribution of intravenous and peritoneal dialysis fluids needed for hospital clinical operations, while labor actions and a bridge collapse put a crunch on shipping through eastern U.S. ports. More than ever, hospital emergency managers needed to pay close attention to logistics, shipping, and distribution to get a heads up on potential challenges.

Cyber Resilience

The health care sector saw some significant impacts from cyber issues, particularly the Crowdstirke “blue screen of death” system crash, the Change Healthcare ransomware attack, and an uptick in the targeting of health care systems and operations by foreign threat actors. Prevention, preparedness, and response efforts around cyber resilience rose to the top of the list for many hospitals emergency management and business continuity teams with an understanding that nearly all our operations rely on access to our information technology systems.

Lessons for 2025

The events of 2024 underscore the importance of continuous investment in health care emergency management and disaster preparedness. Pennsylvania’s hospitals and health systems—and countless others around the U.S.—rose to the moment during 2024, but persistent challenges call for sustained attention and innovation in disaster planning and response.

 

Author: Chris Chamberlain, vice president, emergency management.

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