Business leaders who face the possibility of disasters before they happen, can mitigate results or avoid them altogether, says emergency specialist Darryl Culley.

“While many organizations have a what-if policy, rarely do they have an organizational infrastructure that addresses the key components, working together,” explains the president of Emergency Management & Training Inc. (EMTI), a Barrie-based firm currently working throughout North America and beyond.

“A proper emergency plan uses the internationally accepted standard Incident Management System (IMS) that responds to all types of emergencies and is scalable to meet every incident size.”

Components of the integrated strategy include setting up the command structure, detailing the protocols to be enacted by various organizational departments, liaising with emergency services, ensuring safety and security, and handling media relations and public affairs.

“It doesn’t even have to be an emergency,” says Culley. “If you’re having an event you can use it. It’s the same organizational structure whether you’re dealing with a fire, lost person, ice storm, flood, or even pandemic planning – you name it.

“You have one system that works for a small incident or wide-scale disaster. It’s ideal for health-care facilities, schools and universities.”

He urges companies and organizations not to wait for one disaster before preparing for the next.

“We assist leaders in their fields to prepare for emergencies and crises,” Culley says. “We like to work with the best because they’re the ones who are most conscious and want to be prepared. Companies and agencies have to be forward thinking. We’re all about preparation and mitigating the risks.”

Culley, who founded the company in 1998, he brought with him 20 years experience in the emergency services field. A trained paramedic, he quickly rose through the ranks at the Ministry of Health becoming known as a trouble-shooter who was sent throughout the province helping with the management of various emergency medical services (EMS) organizations.

More recently he provided management training for the new director of ambulance services in Dubai.

Last year, he was brought in by Public Health Canada to coordinate, plan and implement the country’s largest mock-disaster exercise to date.

“This year we’re working on another one of similar scope in northwestern Ontario,” he says.

“The purpose of these particular exercises is to help the EMAT (emergency medical assistance team) prepare to respond to disasters and health-care crises anywhere in the province, and keep their skills up for when these events do actually occur.”

More than 1,000 people are involved in these massive training exercises. The EMAT teams include doctors, nurses and paramedics. They are told of the day to book off work, but they aren’t given any details of the day.

It’s important they know it’s a training exercise and not the real deal, says Culley.

“People will go above and beyond, including putting themselves at risk (during an actual emergency),” he explains. “So, if they don’t know it’s mock, they’ll put themselves at risk and you don’t want that during a training exercise. There’s already adrenaline pumping, but you don’t want to exacerbate that by pretending its real.”

On a smaller scale, he’s worked with several first nations who were working on their pandemic planning and training.

“The one typically used is the avian influenza, however you want a plan that can be used with any pandemic. You want any planning to be broad based to be flexible enough to be used with whatever might come up. SARS was not on the radar.”

In addition to working on a plan to assess risks, mitigate procedures, create the IMS and establish a recovery plan, Culley provides the staff training so the plans can be implemented.

Participants are taught what gets done, where, when, why and by whom.

“We sponsored the world conference on disaster management this year with an eye to expanding internationally,” he recalls. “We were the only company there who provided hands-on training. It just blew me away – there were more than 6,000 people in attendance. That was pretty exciting.”

Culley has recently completed a hazard analysis at a car manufacturing plant in the U.S., and is currently helping a 400-bed health care facility complete its emergency plan and IMS.

“Preparing an organization for an emergency has greater benefits than just having a plan in place,” emphasizes Culley.

“It also brings people together when it’s done properly – different departments within an organization, and different agencies and organizations together. Building these links well benefit a corporation both in an emergency, but also in its day-to-day operations.

“Anytime you strengthen your communications and partnerships, it strengthens your own organization.”

“You can’t just stick your head in the sand. What tends to happen in this business is people get excited about something and then it dies down and then something else will happen. People need to retain a constant vigilance and we’re the experts who can help them do that.”

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