About Us
Our crisis teams now have insight into each other’s decisions and actions.
Marcel van der Kroef works as a crisis management consultant at the Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht. When he joined the hospital a year and a half ago, CrisisSuite was CrisisSuite in use there. The system is now fully integrated into the hospital’s crisis management structure.
Marcel knows both sides of the story. “At my previous employers, we didn’t use CrisisSuite. Back then, everything was done on whiteboards: writing things down by hand, taking photos for archiving. It wasn’t all in one place, and not everyone had access to it at the same time. That’s a real challenge during a crisis.”
The Diakonessenhuis had already been introduced to CrisisSuite. The system was first put into active use during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since become an indispensable part of their operations.
The Diakonessenhuis operates with a crisis team and an operational team. Both teams hold separate meetings but work within the same system. Each team has its own logger and operates according to the BOB structure: assessment, evaluation, and decision-making.
“The operations team can view the information in advance,” Marcel explains. “They can see what decisions have been made and what actions have resulted from them, even if they’re meeting separately. That provides clarity and a clear overview when it really matters.”
Last November, the Diakonessenhuis Hospital experienced a drinking water contamination incident. Both teams were called in and worked using their own loggers in CrisisSuite.
“We followed the structure: assessment, evaluation, decision—and the actions that resulted from those steps were also recorded immediately. Colleagues who had installed the app on their phones were able to carry out their tasks directly through the app. That’s how we CrisisSuite that crisis from start to finish in CrisisSuite .”
The use of CrisisSuite stop once the crisis is over. Marcel also uses the system for evaluations. “I can create a timeline: what decisions were made, how were they further developed and implemented? That’s valuable for the evaluation and for providing accountability afterward.”
Marcel finds the collaboration with Merlin to be pleasant and dynamic. “We see the developments continuing. The new column structure, the practice system that’s regularly updated—these are things I can put to use right away with my loggers. It’s great to see that the system keeps evolving.”
