Pictured: Ed Stedman, Past President, IAHSS, Don MacAlister, Tony York, Past President & Co-Author of Hospital & Healthcare Security & Russ Colling, Founding IAHSS President in 1968 & original Author of Hospital & Healthcare Security 1976.
A record 550 attendees and exhibitors descending on Chicago April 15-18 for the 50th annual International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) Conference & Exhibition. PalAmerican and Paladin Security were front and center as sponsors, speakers, attendees and exhibitors. Our booth located in the exhibit area drew a great deal of interest, and our photo booth on the Sunday evening brought clients and colleagues together for group photos. Among those enjoying the PalAmerican photo booth was Russ Colling, the first President of IAHSS in 1968. Russ is also responsible for writing the first ever Hospital Security textbook and for creating what is now the IAHSS Guidelines Council. Many other event dignitaries enjoyed the evening, including our CEO, Ashley Cooper, with our PalAmerican and Paladin team, as the networking and information sharing was simply amazing!
PalAmerican Healthcare Director, Anjanette Hebert, presented an emergency management session with Paladin’s Emergency Management lead, Katie Subbotina. The presentation was very well received by the attendees, though in a great example of business continuity, Katie almost missed the session after being stranded by bad weather in Toronto. In true PalAmerican and Paladin fashion, she did not give up but rather drove all night from Toronto to Chicago – an 8-hour journey – to arrive for the conference at nearly 8AM to speak 3 hours later! Anjanette said, “Katie was amazing, I don’t know how she did it, talk about dedication!”
In addition to Anjanette, PalAmerican was very well represented at the conference with Executive Vice President, Jason Begin and Healthcare Vice President, Jeff Young in attendance. They were joined by two first-time attendees – our Texas healthcare lead, Mike Alford and PalAmerican Healthcare Director for Pittsburgh, Mike Pietragallo.
Jeff raved about the healthcare ‘train the trainer’ session for PalAmerican that immediately followed the conference. The PalAmerican group was joined by our Utah healthcare lead, John Coyle and Arizona lead, Mike Faller for the ‘train the trainer’ session led by Paladin’s Atlantic Canada healthcare lead, Tom Taggart. Tom (known by many of our PalAmerican team for the training sessions he has conducted in Pittsburgh, Houston, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City) also successfully achieved his IAHSS Certified Healthcare Protection Administrator (CHPA) certification during the conference. According to Jeff, “The degree of engagement by our PalAmerican team during this ‘train the trainer’ day was incredible. We now have five fully-trained PalAmerican Healthcare Use of Force instructors who can further advance our healthcare staff training. This is an important development for us!”
Chief Operating Officer, Don MacAlister who also attended the conference said, “This IAHSS 50th anniversary conference was the best healthcare security event I have ever attended. The education and recognition events were excellent and the networking opportunities were incredible, but most of all, the opportunity to be part of a team representing the quality and commitment that is PalAmerican was truly gratifying.”