A Case Study in Disaster Preparedness: ASHNHA Webinar Covers Alaska
Editor’s Note: Following are the highlights of an interview with Megan Mayron, program director of emergency preparedness for the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association (ASHNHA) www.ashnha.com, in which she discusses the association’s first Webinar in what will now be a Webinar series.
Q. Can you tell us about your association’s Webinar last March? For instance, how many people participated, who attended and what was your goal?
Mayron: We aimed the webinar not only at our members but also at many different stakeholders -- mostly hospital preparedness coordinators, managers and clinicians. The Webinar was about 90 minutes long and offered participants a learning opportunity on emergency preparedness. It’s hard to estimate how many people took part, because there were multiple attendees at every site, but we figure about 70 people were on board for the event.
Q. What about the content?
Mayron: Our featured speaker was Catherine Dain, a nurse clinician at North York General Hospital in Toronto, which was at the epicenter of last year’s SARS epidemic. During her one-hour PowerPoint presentation, Ms. Dain walked us through how her hospital responded to the outbreak. She described how they cared for SARS patients and how the employees at her hospital were put on quarantine for fear of spreading the infection. It was very moving. Then we had an interactive Q&A session between her and our participants.
Q. What was the idea behind this Webinar?
Mayron: Our objective was to give participants an inside look at how SARS affected Toronto hospitals. We also wanted to show them some lessons learned to help them prepare in case of a disaster.
Q. What kind of feedback did you get?
Mayron: We work hard to build relationships between ASHNHA and the health care community, and we’re accustomed to getting a lot of feedback. In this case, we got a rush of e-mails afterward from participants saying how much they enjoyed the Webinar and how useful the information was.
Q. Any problems during the Webinar?
Mayron: Not really – neither with the speaker or with the technology. This was to be our first Web event, so we tested out four different Webinar providers. I’m pleased to report that our research paid off with a very smooth event.
Q. What made you choose Infinite Conferencing as your Webinar provider?
Mayron: We were pleased with their phone conferencing services, and our research showed that, if we used any of their competitors, our attendees would have had to download some things onto their computers. Downloads like these and certain technical requirements may not be a problem if your Webinar is a regularly scheduled event involving the same participants. But our audience changes, and we didn’t want them to contend with anything like that.
Q. But that wasn’t necessary with Infinite Conferencing?
Mayron: They didn’t require our attendees to download anything or use other kinds of technology. We just told our participants, “Meet us at Infinite Conferencing Web site.” All they had to do was log onto the Internet.
Q. Did you do any special work on your end to prepare for the Webinar?
Mayron: We conduct a lot of phone conferences with the health care community here in Alaska, both members and nonmembers. And we know that nothing steals the thunder from your content like technology that doesn’t run smoothly. So we always do a dry run with new speakers before an event to make sure the technology is on track and that our speakers are comfortable with the technology. In this case, we conducted a dry run with Ms. Dain, and it paid off. Everything went very smoothly.
Q. Any other reasons you chose Infinite Conferencing?
Mayron: Yes, it was a matter of pricing. Most companies charge a price per minute for the conference-call feature as well as the Web portion. The bells and whistles these companies offer include a lot of features we considered “want-to-have,” not “need-to-have.” We didn’t need those extras, and they were expensive – and not optional.
Q. What about Infinite Conferencing’s pricing?
Mayron: They divide their pricing into two distinct segments, with each one priced very reasonably. To use the phone conferencing service is one amount, and another amount to buy seats for the Web component. Their quote was more affordable than any other vendor.
Q. Based on your first venture last March, would you say Webinars are a good choice for you?
Mayron: Webinars enable us to deliver information interactively to the health care community throughout Alaska. Without Webinars, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to do that quite as effectively. In-person conferences are out of the question because the distances in Alaska are vast, and it’s just too expensive to travel.
Q. What advice would you have for other organizations that might be considering a Webinar with Infinite Conferencing?
Mayron: Pick one person in your organization to be the gatekeeper of the technology. Make that person responsible for coordinating the technology and when it will be used and for training new presenters. The bottom line is, a Webinar is really not a big deal – at least with Infinite Conferencing. People don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s as simple as logging onto the Internet.
Q. So you’re quite satisfied with Infinite Conferencing for Webinars?
Mayron: We are, and in fact we’re renewing our contract with them. Not all vendors are good, and I like to recommend those that are.
