Casey Reardon (provided photo)
SARANAC LAKE — Casey Riordan, who has more than two decades of experience as a combat veteran and local police officer, is Adirondack Health’s new emergency preparedness coordinator.
“My ultimate goal is to make sure everyone gets home safe,” Reardon said. “When people go home to their families at night, all the effort that goes into it is worth it. I think it will be fantastic: the experience I have combined with the leadership and experience of the hospital staff.”
Reardon spent more than 20 years in law enforcement, most of which he served with the Saranac Lake Village Police Department, including time as assistant chief. Reardon said his experience as a local police officer has allowed him to step into his new role at Adirondack Health and see both sides, bridging the gap between what’s happening in the health care organization and what’s happening in the community.
“It’s really interesting to see Adirondack Health from both sides now,” Reardon said. “You have that perspective when you’re out there in law enforcement — how the hospital works, the facilities and the people who work there. But until you actually work here, you don’t fully understand how big the operation is and what it takes to keep its facilities safe. It is one of the largest infrastructure and employers not only in Saranac Lake, but in the region.”
Using the connections he made in Tri-Lakes during his years as a law enforcement officer, Reardon said he is in a unique position to connect Adirondack Health with the community and law enforcement in a new way. He said his constant communication with local public safety organizations is a win-win situation for both the security and emergency preparedness of the organization and surrounding communities.
“Ultimately, I want to end or resolve our security issues long before they reach Adirondack Health’s territory,” Reardon said. “My goal is to have such a good relationship with local community leaders and emergency services that we identify problems ahead of time and deal with them before they take hold.”
Reardon also has experience as a combat veteran with the US Army, serving tours in Iraq in 2004 and Afghanistan in 2009. In Afghanistan, Reardon led an infantry unit performing embedded police mentoring work outside of Kandahar, one of Afghanistan’s most volatile areas.
“As a police mentor, we created a security plan for the entire area,” he said. “We started from scratch. This experience was invaluable. We have overcome language and cultural barriers to create a security plan that benefits the entire region.”
Reardon said it is currently in the collection and planning process at Adirondack Health. His first weeks were devoted to gathering information and perspectives. He said he appreciates hearing each department’s perspective on the organization’s security and how they believe security can be improved.
“We want to create a culture of security,” Reardon said. “You have to develop it in your leadership and your staff. Everyone should think about security and safety.”
Reardon said it’s a unique challenge to prioritize security at a treatment facility like Adirondack Health.
“You can’t lock all the doors, fortify the building, or bar the windows, so we’re working to create a place where the healing environment and the safe environment coexist.” he said.
As the husband of Carrie Reardon, Adirondack Health’s AVP of Patient Care Services, he has great empathy for healthcare workers. Carrie has been with Adirondack Health for almost 20 years and is a key member of the organization’s nurse leadership and the COVID-19 planning and implementation team. Carrie’s daughter, Chloe, also recently joined Adirondack Health as a phlebotomist. Casey said his family’s work at the hospital helped shape his goals for the organization’s safety and security.
“It’s really clear to me that people have families,” he said. “I know that every person I see in the hallways at Adirondack Health has loved ones back home to go home to. It helps me feel the burden of making sure our staff, patients and visitors get home safely.”
Reardon said the executive leadership team at Adirondack Health is dedicated to improving the safety of their organization. He said creating a solid plan requires looking at what’s right for the organization, whether that’s infrastructure changes, technology upgrades or more “boots on the ground” in terms of security.
Creating a safer environment for staff, patients and visitors is one of the primary goals of Adirondack Health’s long-term management action plan.
When he’s not thinking about security, Reardon is a jack of all trades, running several of his own businesses, selling real estate, and spending a lot of time watching his kids’ hockey games with his wife, Carrie. One of his businesses is 39 Bravo Beef Company, run from his family’s nearly 100-year-old ranch in Bombay. And a portion of 39 Bravo’s proceeds are donated directly to veterans or veteran organizations.
“It includes my favorite things: the veteran community, ranching, farming and family,” he said. “It’s a really cool thing to run a beef operation that feeds vets from my family farm that I ran around in diapers as a kid. We love raising beef cattle.”