“When serving as the FEMA administrator, and when I led the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA), I was always concerned about emergency power vulnerabilities at our critical infrastructure facilities, especially hospitals. One of the most important projects I launched at RIEMA was an emergency power resilience initiative to assess the generator fleet in our hospitals and evaluate the existing protocol for generator status reporting during outages. I turned to Eric Cote to help lead this project given his expertise in this area. Eric helped us identify some vulnerabilities and worked with me and my staff to create a new protocol to accelerate emergency power threat reporting. Eric also authored Protecting Patients When Disaster Strikes, a heralded RIEMA Playbook that introduced our new emergency power status reporting protocol and other best practices to safeguard emergency power. Eric brought a lot of passion to this project and I was proud to see him use our initiative as a roadmap for a similar project he led in California.”
Pete Gaynor, Vice President, Resiliency and Disaster Recovery
Hill International
“Thank you Eric for everything you have done to make Los Angeles County better prepared. We couldn’t have done it without your persistence and expertise.”
Terry Crammer, Chief, Disaster Response and Coordination
Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency
“Among Hurricane Katrina’s most tragic outcomes was the deadly impact power outages and flooding had on individuals with disabilities, especially those who depended on life support equipment in their home. Eric Cote should be saluted for his innovative thinking in creating Power Outage Partners, a groundbreaking initiative that seeks to help in-home life support users extend the runtime of their medical devices during outages. This will provide more time for safe evacuation and may eliminate the need for evacuation in short duration outages.”
Warren Hebert, Chief Executive Officer
Home Care Association of Louisiana
“Backup power is one of the top issues our members look at during pre-disaster planning and when leading their state’s response to a disaster. Hurricane Sandy raised important questions about how backup power is regulated and managed and what steps can be taken to enhance backup power for critical healthcare facilities. NEMA is pleased to be a part of Powered for Patients and looks forward to bringing the important perspective of state emergency managers to the table in terms of the initiative’s research and broader work.”
Trina Sheets, Executive Director
National Emergency Management Association
“Powered for Patients is helping to lead an important national discussion about healthcare facility readiness that not only brings hospitals to the table, but also nursing homes and dialysis facilities. This is a critical mission that will help the healthcare community speak as one voice when it comes to codes, standards and government requirements relating to disaster preparedness and response. Powered for Patients is also an excellent vehicle to help get the resources our facilities will need during times of disaster. I’m very excited to be representing ASHE’s hospital facility operators through my work with Powered for Patients. Our members are on the front lines of safe-guarding backup power for hospitals and I know they will benefit significantly from the work of Powered for Patients.”
Jonathan Flannery, MHSA, CHFM, FASHE, Senior Associate Director of Advocacy
American Society for Healthcare Engineering