Norm Ferrier has worked in various aspects of Canadian healthcare for more than 42 years, and for 32 of those years has focused increasingly on emergency planning for all types of healthcare facilities and organizations, across the entire continuum of healthcare. Norm holds a Master of Science degree in Emergency Planning and Disaster Management from the University of Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom. He holds a Certificate in Healthcare Emergency Management from the Ontario Hospital Association and is a member of the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. Norm was the principal investigator for the Government of Canada’s National Assessment of Emergency Planning in Canada’s General Hospitals and was on the faculty of the Ontario Hospital Association, where he designed and taught courses related to Emergency Management for those who manage all aspects of healthcare, both across Canada and beyond.
Norm was also the Chair of the team which restandardized the Ontario Hospital Association’s Standardized Emergency Colour Codes and coauthored the Ontario Hospital Association’s Emergency Management Toolkit. He also created and introduced the Ontario Hospital Association’s Certificate in Healthcare Emergency Management. Norm has been published and speaks internationally and is the author of another college/university textbook, Fundamentals of Emergency Management: Preparedness, published by Emond-Montgomery. Norm was the 2013 winner of the Canadian Emergency Management Award, presented at the World Conference on Disaster Management. He lives in Tavira, Portugal, where he still operates an Emergency Management consulting practice, focused primarily, but not exclusively, on healthcare.