CS: Technology and training require funding. How do you make the most of the funds you receive?
Hickey: One of the distinct advantages I have is that I am director of safety and corporate risk. As corporate risk officer, I am always exploring and developing proactive risk avoidance strategies. We’ve proven that we can save dollars by having a Public Safety Department that looks at risk avoidance rather than taking reactive steps.
CS: What kind of input from hospital staff do you receive?
Hickey: We have a safety ambassador program that we have taken to every department in the hospital with the belief that everyone here has a stake in hospital safety. Now, we have a safety ambassador in every department in the hospital. That gives me 120 representatives who are eyes and ears. When we meet every month, they provide feedback on trends that they see.
The Hickey File
Name: John M. (Jack) Hickey
Age: 63
Title: Administrative Director of Safety and Corporate Risk, Edward Hospital and Health Services, Naperville, Ill.
Campus: Edward Hospital and Health Services has six locations in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, the largest of which is 50-acre, 228-bed Edward Hospital. The hospital and the outpatient satellite locations handle almost 500,000 outpatient visits per year.
Experience: Chief of Emergency Services and Disaster Agency, Cook County Sheriff’s Office; vice president of support services and safety officer, Columbia Grant Hospital (now Lincoln Park Hospital); commander of administration, Crestwood Police Department, Crestwood, Ill.; administrative director of safety and corporate risk, Edward Hospital and Health Services, Naperville, Ill., since 2000; member of numerous emergency management and security associations.
Family: Married to Dorothy Hickey, 40 years; two children, John and Mara; five grandchildren.
On staying motivated: “Both myself and Public Safety Manager Lee Matthews worked on the technical side in theater years ago. One thing that always stayed with us from that experience is that you could have a great matinee show, but at 7 p.m. that night, we would have a whole new audience coming in that had no idea how great the matinee was. We had to do it just as good or better all over again. That’s how it is each day working in public safety.”
The unabridged version of this article as well as additional articles are available in the September/October issue of Campus Safety Magazine.
