Operational Readiness: Crisis Management Implementation for Woodlands Health
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[CM] [WH] [E1] [C4] Crisis Versus Business Continuity Management

Woodlands Health (WH), with its integrated acute and New call-to-actioncommunity care facilities, is a vital institution serving northern Singapore.

Ensuring operational readiness means preparing for two distinct but interrelated domains: Crisis Management, addressing sudden threats to reputation, safety, or operations, and Business Continuity Management, which focuses on maintaining critical functions during disruptions such as disasters.

Moh Heng Goh
Crisis Management Certified Planner-Specialist-Expert
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Chapter 4

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Woodlands Health

Distinguishing Crisis Management from Business Continuity Management at Woodlands Health

Woodlands Health (WH), with its integrated acute and community care facilities, is a vital[CM] [WH] [E1] [C4] CM Vs BCM

Ensuring operational readiness means preparing for two distinct but interrelated domains: Crisis Management, addressing sudden threats to reputation, safety, or operations, and Business Continuity Management, which focuses on maintaining critical functions during disruptions such as disasters.

Definitions & Conceptual Foundations

Crisis Management (CM)

According to BCMpedia, Crisis Management is "the overall coordination of an organisation's response to a crisis, in an effective, timely manner, intending to avoid or minimise damage to the organisation's profitability, reputation, or ability to operate."

Under ISO 22361, CM involves a structured framework guided by principles such as governance, strategy, risk, decision-making, communication, ethics, and learning—applied through stages like anticipation, assessment, prevention/ mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and continual improvement.

Business Continuity Management (BCM)

BCM is defined as an organisation-wide discipline of processes that identify potential impacts threatening the organisation and enable effective responses to safeguard its stakeholders and reputation.

This includes planning for disruptions—such as facility outages or infrastructure failures—and ensuring continuity through predefined recovery strategies.

Disaster

A Disaster is a sudden, unplanned event causing significant damage or loss, leading the organisation to fail in delivering critical functions for a defined period.

In Woodlands Health’s context, this would include scenarios like significant flood damage to infrastructure, widespread system failures, or large-scale infectious outbreaks.

Crisis Scenario

A Crisis Scenario is a situation likely to disrupt operations that requires informed assumptions and human intervention to resolve.

For WH, examples include abrupt reputational crises, data privacy breaches, emergent public relations emergencies during pandemics, or sudden staffing scandals.

Core Comparison: Crisis Management vs Business Continuity Management

 

Aspect

Crisis Management (CM)

Business Continuity Management (BCM)

Primary Focus

Managing extraordinary threats (e.g., reputational, safety, leadership failure)

Sustaining critical business functions amid disruptions

Typical Scenarios

Crisis Scenarios (e.g., data breaches, media scandals, ethical lapses)

Disasters (e.g., physical destruction, prolonged infrastructure failure)

Response Approach

Dynamic, rapid, often unplanned or unique (use of decision-making under pressure)

Structured, preplanned, with recovery protocols (e.g., redundancy, backup systems)

Objective

Minimise harm to operations, reputation, and stakeholders

Maintain or quickly resume the provision of critical services

Governance & Principles

ISO 22361: leadership, risk, communication, ethics, learning, anticipation of the recovery cycle

Embedded in the BCM discipline, aligned with the ISO 22301 ecosystem

ISO 22361 in WH’s Healthcare Setting

ISO 22361 is specifically about strengthening Crisis Management capabilities. It outlines:

  • Clauses 4–9, focusing on context, CM capability building, leadership, decision-making, communication, and continuous learning.
  • The importance of integrating CM with, but distinct from, BCM systems (e.g., ISO 22301) to offer holistic resilience.

For Woodlands Health, integrating ISO 22361 means establishing a Crisis Management Team (CMT) with clearly defined roles (e.g., operations, clinical leadership, communications, ethics, legal), crisis communication protocols, training, simulation exercises and a feedback-driven improvement cycle.

Healthcare-Relevant Example Application

  • Disaster (BCM response): Suppose a sudden power outage renders the hospital’s primary data centre unusable. BCM leads activation of backup power, redundant systems, and alternate work locations to maintain patient care and access to records
  • Crisis Scenario (CM response): Imagine media reports of a surgical error going viral, leading to reputational and trust challenges. The CMT, guided by CM principles, rapidly coordinates internal investigation, transparent communication, media handling, staff support, and ethical leadership to navigate the fallout and restore stakeholder confidence.

Recommendations for Woodlands Health

  1. Establish a Dual-Layer Resilience System: Maintain robust BCM protocols for disasters and embed a separate yet integrated CM framework per ISO 22361.
  2. Form a Skilled Crisis Management Team (CMT): Comprising strategic leadership across operations, communications, legal, clinical, and ethics.
  3. Tailor Crisis Management Plans: Use ISO 22361’s seven-step process (anticipation to improvement) in healthcare-specific simulations.
  4. Train & Exercise Regularly: Conduct crisis drills for scenarios like pandemics, IT breaches, and leadership controversies.
  5. Create Communication Protocols: Plan for internal staff messaging, media, community reassurance, and regulatory engagement.
  6. Review & Improve Continuously: After drills or real events, conduct post-event reviews to refine both CM and BCM processes.

Summing Up ...

By distinguishing Disasters (managed through BCM) from Crisis Scenarios (addressed via CM), Woodlands Health can build an operationally ready posture that is both resilient in maintaining services and responsive in protecting reputation, safety, and trust.

Leveraging ISO 22361 ensures that crisis readiness is structured, principled, and continuously evolving—essential attributes for a modern healthcare provider serving a large community footprint.

 

Operational Readiness: Crisis Management Implementation for Woodlands Health
eBook 1: Understanding Your Organisation
[CM] [WH] [E1] [C1] Overview of Case Study for Woodlands Health [CM] [WH] [E1] [C2] Understanding Your Organisation [CM] [WH] [E1] [C3] Establishing CM Goals [CM] [WH] [E1] [C4] CM Vs BCM [CM] [WH] [E1] [C5] Identifying the Types of Crisis Scenarios [CM] [WH] [E1] [C6] Assessing Risks and Threats
[CM] [WH] [E1] [C7] Composing the CM Team [CM] [WH] [E1] [C9] Pre-Crisis - Risk Identification and Crisis Preparedness [CM] [WH] [E1] [C10] During Crisis - Crisis Response and Decision-Making [CM] [WH] [E1] [C11] Post Crisis - Crisis Recovery [CM] [WH] [E1] [C12] Summary and Strategic Outlook  

 

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