Recommitment to Resilience
When we hear the word resilience we often think about ourselves – who we are as people, and how we recover from stressful situations. But in the insurance world, the definition of resilience is also applied to our teams, our organization, and the physical buildings we live and work in.
“In a way, resilience is about organizations thinking through the worst that can happen,” said Jonathan Bracamonte, Senior Account Executive at HIROC. “It’s about constantly repairing, improving, and updating.”
Resilience was on the minds of Bracamonte and the HIROC team at this year’s FM Global Healthcare and Education Leaders’ Forum in Frisco, Texas.
HIROC partners with FM Global through its Brokerage to provide property coverage to subscribers. Being a part of this annual forum – along with a few of our subscribers – is a great learning opportunity and a chance to stay up-to-date in property risk management research.
“I consider working with HIROC and FM global a partnership and a commitment to property loss prevention,” said Bill Herridge, Superintendent of Facilities and Building Operations at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). For Herridge, the Forum is a unique opportunity for collective learning and enhancing resiliency at CPSO.
Putting Resilience to the Test
Every speaker at the two-day event had a story to illustrate how their organizations’ resilience was tested. 2018 was a challenging year in the insurance world, especially when it comes to property losses relating to weather and natural disasters. FM Global reports the top losses for healthcare in 2018 resulted from escaped liquids (water damage), followed by wind and hail.
“The resiliency of some of the speaker organizations was inspiring,” said HIROC’s Senior Account Executive, Jey Sivaprasad.
Sivaprasad spoke about the session from Pepperdine University, which went through both the loss of a student in a nearby shooting, and the California Wildfires in the span of a very short time. “It showed that having a good risk management team is important when it comes to navigating through difficult times and ensuring the impact is minimized,” said Sivaprasad.
Another major takeaway is the importance of emergency preparedness in the event of something unexpected. “Preparing through drills or open communication with external organizations – like law enforcement or the fire department – can go a long way,” said James Penafiel, Underwriting Supervisor at HIROC.
For Ruth Bullas, Director, Patient Relations and Chief Privacy and Risk Officer at St. Joseph’s Health Care London, the sessions on active shooter incidents were especially informative. “We’re currently working with London Health Sciences Centre and the London Police Service on education around Code Silver protocols,” she said. While the stories themselves were upsetting, the lessons learned from these speakers will really help Bullas and her team. One of those lessons, said Bullas, is the importance of plain language. “One hospital talked about how although it’s great that staff know the codes, patients and visitors won’t necessarily know what’s going on when they hear them.”
Connecting and sharing ideas with HIROC subscribers and other delegates from across the US was another bonus for HIROC’s staff and subscriber representatives. “It’s very much delegate driven,” said Bracamonte. “It’s a true forum.”
Michelle Holden is Communications & Marketing Specialist at HIROC
To learn more about HIROC’s partnership with FM Global and the tools available to subscribers, contact Jean Asuncion (jasuncion@hiroc.com), Engineering Liaison Associate at HIROC.