At UPMC Hamot, the mantle of emergency preparedness rests on the shoulders of Jason Chenault, PhD, senior director, Emergency Services, and his team. “Our job is to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from incidents,” said Jason. “We want to make sure that we have redundant systems in place to ensure we can maintain operations.”
This past year, Jason and his team responded to two major events that left UPMC Hamot in the direct path of Mother Nature: the total solar eclipse and a record-breaking lake-effect snowstorm.
Jason Chenault, PhD, senior director, Emergency Services
The path of totality for the solar eclipse made major news in April and put Erie in the spotlight. The Emergency Preparedness team prepared the entire facility for the huge influx of visitors to the city. “Preparing for the solar eclipse took months of planning and action,” said Jason. “We brought together a multitude of people to make sure everyone in the organization was safe.”
Jason and his team involved everyone at UPMC Hamot, from the transplant team to UPMC Western Behavioral Health at Safe Harbor, discussing the what-if scenarios for each kind of patient.
On the day of the solar eclipse, Jason and his team got to celebrate all their hard work on the helipad at UPMC Hamot while witnessing the natural phenomenon.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Jason.
In November, Erie was hit by a record-breaking snowstorm. While other businesses closed, UPMC Hamot stayed open.
“We had a group of facilities workers, security guards, nurses, and volunteers helping people get here,” said Jason, who used his own truck to pick staff up and get them to UPMC Hamot. “We didn’t even have to ask before people started stepping up.”
Staff members gave each other rides to work and helped shovel each other out of their homes.
Even as winter comes to an end, Jason and his team are a beacon of strength and calm, carrying on the Erie community spirit of supporting one another as they remain prepared to handle future storms.
See photos and read the full story in the March issue of First Friday.
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