Forum - August 2011

Emergency Response: Operating a
Remote Headquarters

BY DAVID J. MARTIN, CAE

The Society of Critical Care Medicine has a long history of responding to disasters of all kinds, including natural disasters, wars and terrorist attacks. But the onset of the swine flu (H1N1) pandemic in spring 2009 was different. While the Society’s Emergency Response Team activated its traditional response system to support health care efforts in Mexico, SCCM also began preparing for the possibility that its headquarters operations could be impacted if the flu took root in Chicago.

Remote Operations Mode

The team knew that the most probable response from public health authorities would be to isolate individuals in their homes until the crisis had passed. It therefore turned its attention to how SCCM headquarters could provide its full range of member services with little or no physical presence at its building in Mount Prospect, Ill.

A plan, known as Remote Operations Mode, was developed to accommodate the need for both a short-term and longer-term headquarters absence. For both modes of operation, relying on technology infrastructure would be key. Staff already had access to their usual computer systems using Microsoft’s Terminal Services functionality. Because the office had recently moved all paper records into an electronic document management system, this information also was readily available. Similarly, a staff intranet with group workspaces via Microsoft Share-Point was already in use and remotely accessible, as was access to SCCM’s association management database, business monitoring dashboards and most other office tools. With all these systems in place, the Emergency Response Team began to investigate what would be required to operate the switchboard console and customer service stations remotely, while determining which staff members had access to the Internet from home.

SCCM employees could seamlessly telecommute to headquarters. But could headquarters telecommute to them?

During a recent relocation of its office, SCCM had installed a new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system. This type of system is connected to both the Internet and the internal office network. Although it looks like a traditional phone on the desk, a VoIP phone provides much greater flexibility in programming and features. The telephone vendor indicated that the system could support remote console operations via a laptop computer and that staff could control their desktop phones remotely.

Features like call forwarding could be engaged, and hunt groups could be activated as needed to support staffing changes, such as those occurring during a pandemic. The switchboard operators would have laptop-based consoles at home to handle calls to the main phone number and could transfer calls to extensions as they normally would; these calls in turn would be routed to employees’ home or mobile numbers.

Using the same system, key staff also had remote access to security cameras inside and outside the building, as well as to information from remote monitoring systems that report on security, power, temperature, humidity and other facility operations, which would continue functioning even in the event of a power failure thanks to the building’s own backup power generators.

Only a handful of employees indicated they would not be able to work remotely due to lack of Internet access at home. A short-term (two-hour) test of the overall system was completed, but by then it appeared that the pandemic would not be as severe as feared. As such, the system had not received a full test or actual usage — that is, until the blizzard of February 2011.

Snowed-in Success

Upon learning of the forecasted blizzard, the Staff Leadership Team decided it was an ideal time to enact SCCM’s Remote Operations Mode. By this point, only one staff person did not have full Internet access from home. The plan was therefore reviewed with all staff and, on Tuesday morning, Feb. 1 — the day of the blizzard — all employees were safely ensconced in their homes, ready to work despite the pending weather conditions, which would hit full force by afternoon. At mid-morning, all team leaders reported that, despite a few early morning launch challenges, all systems were operating according to plan, and the full staff was connected and providing services remotely.

For the next two days, staff would work in Remote Operations Mode. A daily call in the late afternoon was scheduled for the Staff Leadership Team to discuss how operations were going, and no significant issues were reported.

During a longer-term event, such as a pandemic, Remote Operations Mode calls for designated staff to visit headquarters on a schedule whereby they do not encounter other colleagues. This permits a physical inspection/maintenance of the building, collection and redistribution of mail to home addresses as necessary, and other tasks that would benefit from a physical presence at the building. Although the plan was not designed for snowstorms, that it worked during a blizzard was an unanticipated side benefit — especially in Chicago.

Although it spells the end of the coveted office “snow day,” Remote Operations Mode permits membership services to continue unimpeded whenever coming to the office is not advisable.