Learning New Tricks
It’s been a full season for New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain using 1RISK’s Incident Reporting, Investigation Forms and Terrain Park Management apps. We caught up with Loon’s Incident Investigation Supervisor, Amanda Bennett, who was responsible for the Risk Management software app roll-out to the ski patrol. Her third season in this role, and her 7th on the patrol team, she’d still be considered a “rookie” in many circles. But that didn’t stop the unassuming, self-assured patroller with the task of rolling out a new “techy system” to a group of 45 patrollers who had been used to tracking incidents with pen and paper since the beginning of time.
1RISK: What is the biggest difference and change between the 1RISK Apps and the “old way?”
Amanda: You can actually read reports now. By digitizing the process, we can clearly read reports and we don’t have to decipher each patroller’s unique handwriting. A lot of times, a patroller may forget a section of the report, and the IR app doesn’t allow you to move forward or “submit” until all sections are marked and completed appropriately.
The nurses love the system because they know that when they get the report, it will be filled out completely and they won’t have chase down a patroller to finish the paperwork. (Note: The report starts with the patroller who responded to the scene. Once he or she finishes their report, the file is “submitted” up a level to the nurses who add their report.)
The biggest, and maybe the most important, difference the IR app has cut down on is the time it takes for our patrollers to fill out a report. It’s all in one place. No more running to make more copies, or looking for a new pen. This is huge on a busy vacation day when we need to recycle teams as quickly as possible.
1RISK: Was it a hard-sell to a group who is usually pretty set in their ways?
Amanda: (Insert a chuckle.) Yes, and no. A lot of the patrollers are also part-time or full-time EMTs or work in some form of the medical field. For them it was an easy leap. And for the nurses in the First Aid room, there was no question, as they work in the electronic medical records all day long. There was probably a little bit of wincing at first with some of our team members who were used to the pen and paper approach. That said, the program is really intuitive, so it was fairly painless to get everyone up and running with it.
1RISK: How did you set about to train the staff?
Amanda: At our fall “refresher,” I had a PowerPoint presentation to go through the program. And then during the beginning of the season, I spent a lot of time in the First Aid room working one-on-one with patrollers to make sure they had a handle on it. We were pretty much up and running by the beginning of January.
1RISK: If you had to do the training all over again, would you change anything?
Amanda: I realized that we all learn differently. The PowerPoint was great because it had a lot of useful information, but really it was the hands-on training where it clicked for the team. If I were to give a piece of advice to a resort who is implementing the IR app for ‘15-’16, I would recommend having some stations set up where the patrollers can use the app in a test environment. Then, once the season starts, hopefully you won’t have as much apprehension from the group during the first “real” incidents.
1RISK: Were you surprised at how quickly the team took to the program?
Amanda: Not really because it is just that easy to use. We have a board at Dispatch, and if your name is on the board that means that you have to come see me because I have a question about one of your reports. It became a quest not to have your name on the board. We saw a new level of ownership from our patrollers and really it lifted the team.
1RISK: From a risk management perspective, how has the IR App helped you and the team at Loon Mountain?
Amanda: A few things. (1) Everything about an incident is logged in one place- the report, photos, any other accessory documents can be scanned (rental forms, event releases). (2) It’s all time-stamped. There can be no question of when a report was submitted, or other items added to a file. (3) Since we also have the Terrain Park App, we’re able to instantly get information about the terrain park set-up, and we can link that back to any of our reports. (4) The program allows our senior managers to get instant access to what is happening on the mountain on any given day or during a specific time frame. They can also log into any specific incident to see the details immediately. This is crucial and allows them to more quickly get up to speed on any critical issues.
– Article & Interview by Stacy Lopes