Prepared for an Emergency

Within ten minutes of the I-35W bridge collapse, John Hick was on the scene, providing assistance and coordinating with paramedics and others working with the injured. “It was a surreal day,” he says. “I am really, really proud of the community and the paramedics.”

Hick graduated from the Mayo Medical School and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, where today he is an emergency physician. It is days like August 1 that Hick, who is forty, the same age as the bridge, has prepared for his whole career. As medical director for emergency preparedness at HCMC, he is involved in many facets of medical preparation.

In 2002, Hick founded the Minneapolis/St.Paul Metropolitan Hospital Compact, a preparedness agreement involving twenty-nine hospitals in the seven-county metro area that have agreed to communicate and share staff and resources in emergency situations. He saw a need for the Hospital Compact in the 1990s, but after September 11, 2001, before funding was even received, the initiative was set in motion. HCMC serves as the regional hospital resource center for the program, which works as a tiered emergency-response system. In an emergency, the hospitals in the program are contacted and if a resource or shortage or problem cannot be resolved with the region the issue moves to the Minnesota Department of Health. After that, if needed, the federal government becomes involved. “Seeing how hospitals can work together has been a gratifying process,” Hick says. The program is now preparing for future issues affecting the metro area, including the 2008 Republican National Convention.

On any given day, Hick may be coming off of the night shift, then heading to a meeting, proving that his schedule is far from consistent. “I have one part in a nine-to-five [job] and one part in a round-the-clock field,” he says of his roles in medicine.

He is also heavily involved with the Minnesota Department of Health as the medical director for the Office of Emergency Preparedness, which involves preparing for everything from anthrax to ice storms. “Minnesota thinks ahead of the national curve,” he says of bioterrorism threats. “We’re way out front as a state looking at preparedness issues.”