Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Posted Sep 15, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
Behavioral
Walk me through how you would build out or run an Emergency Preparedness Committee at a hospital like Good Shepherd, from getting the right people in the room to keeping momentum between meetings.
whether the candidate has actually run a committee and understands the stakeholder mix needed for hospital emergency planning
Tell me about a time you had to get HICS or NIMS training rolled out to staff who didn't see the value in it yet. How did you approach that?
experience driving adoption of incident command frameworks against staff resistance or apathy
Describe a time you had to represent your hospital in a regional or county-level emergency planning meeting where other hospitals or agencies had competing interests. How did you hold your hospital's position while still building the mutual aid relationship?
political and relationship skills needed to function as hospital liaison across agencies
Tell me about a time a surprise state or federal regulation change forced you to rework an existing preparedness or hazmat plan. What did you change first and why?
how the candidate prioritizes under regulatory shifts and keeps leadership informed
Tell me about a disagreement you had with a hospital leader, another department, or an outside agency over how a plan should be written or executed. How did it get resolved?
conflict resolution skill in a role that requires influence without direct authority
Technical
How do you structure a full-scale or tabletop exercise to actually test things like surge capacity, decontamination, and PPE use, rather than just checking a box for accreditation?
depth of hands-on exercise design experience versus surface familiarity with the terms
You're the hospital's Hazmat Officer. Walk me through how you'd design a hazmat training program that satisfies OSHA and the accrediting body, and how you'd prove that training actually stuck.
working knowledge of hazmat regulatory requirements and whether they think past attendance sheets toward real competency verification
How do you decide what belongs in a quality improvement report for emergency preparedness versus what's just noise from a drill or real event?
ability to translate exercise and incident data into meaningful QI activity rather than generic after-action reports
What is the Illinois Mutual Aid MOU used for in your view, and how would you make sure Good Shepherd is actually ready to give or receive help under it, not just signed onto it on paper?
specific familiarity with the regional mutual aid structure named in the posting versus generic emergency management knowledge
Situational
Say a HRSA grant deliverable is due in two weeks and the data you need is scattered across three departments that don't report to you. What do you do?
ability to manage grant compliance and reporting without formal authority over the people holding the data
If a real hazmat incident happened on campus tomorrow, what's your role in the first hour, and what would you be watching for that a less experienced coordinator might miss?
practical command presence and situational awareness during an actual event, not just paper planning
You're teaching an 8-hour EMS education block to a fire department crew who already think they know this material. How do you keep them engaged and make sure something actually transfers?
teaching ability and credibility with an experienced, potentially skeptical audience
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As published by Advocate Health.
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