CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Diana Volkman honored for work securing WNY hospitals and nursing homes

Niagara Gazette - 2/19/2018

Feb. 19--After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 occurred in New York City, there was a scare of anthrax and bio-terrorism. Hospitals soon learned they weren't prepared to handle these types of emergencies or mass trauma or pandemic.

A Niagara Falls woman who, since then has worked to secure health care facilities throughout Western New York and the Finger Lakes, was recently honored by New York state for the improvements she helped to make in medical center emergency preparedness.

Diana Volkman of Niagara Falls, who retired in December from her position of Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Representative for the state office of Health and Emergency Preparedness, helped to enhance emergency management capabilities in healthcare facilities throughout region.

On Jan. 22, she was presented the state Health Commissioner's Harold Zuker's Lifetime Achievement Award at an awards event in Albany.

"I was so honored. I felt like I was not worthy," said Volkman. "I feel privileged to have worked with hospitals. That's where the response begins."

Among those were 25 hospitals including the VA Hospital of Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

"Our programs provide a lot of support to hospitals. It's just not easy getting these plans in place. It's a complex system," said Volkman. "We worked with the staff in order to help prepare them for different situations."

One of those plans was the Healthcare Coalition Concept, which encouraged multiple facilities to work together in a crisis situation and which many hospitals adopted.

"Mechanisms that we use include meeting with the county, EMS, emergency management, health care facilities, and hospitals for joint planning purposes," she said. "We have a strong mutual aid plan and memorandums of agreement to help each other out."

While Volkman impacted the public health system greatly by teaching specific methods to implement during incidents like natural disasters, evacuations, and mass trauma -- she credits the "boots on the ground" as the people who really helped grow the programs within each healthcare facility.

She noted how Niagara County hospitals like Niagara Falls Memorial and Mount St. Mary's continue to work especially hard on this concept and take it seriously.

Prior to her 13 years of employment with the state, Volkman worked as a registered nurse for the Niagara County Health Department for 12 years.

___

(c)2018 the Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.)

Visit the Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) at www.niagara-gazette.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Nationwide News