Emergency visits climbed to a record high of 145.6 million patients in 2016, the most recent year available, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As someone who has been engaged by consulting clients and full-time employers to conduct threat assessments and write security and emergency preparedness plans, I am often left puzzled by how many organizations go to great lengths to assess their vulnerabilities and create plans to address them, but almost never test their ongoing effectiveness.

When the Cold Springs Fire tore through 528 acres of Boulder County, Colo., Director of Emergency Management Mike Chard took to social media.

If you have an emergency, you might wait a while in Denver (average police response time of just under 13 minutes), while a serious emergency call in Chicago will garner a response within 3.5 minutes.

Enterprise decision makers know to “expect the unexpected” when it comes to business continuity planning. But the increasingly complex threat environment is challenging organizations as never before to prepare for an expanding range of incidents.

It may happen when you are least able to prevent it – when your executive or his family are alone and most vulnerable.

“I take a lot of lessons from the community policing model, which is policing through customer service,” says Ryan King, Manager of Safety, Security and Emergency Management for Central Florida Health (CFH).

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, Katherine Collins knew exactly what she and the team were going to do.

47% of emergency decision-makers said severe and extreme weather events are their leading concern when it comes to emergency communications and response, outpacing other events such as active shooters (23%), cybersecurity attacks (13%), IT outages (10%) and workplace violence (6%).