Emergency Management
The concept of emergency preparedness is defined as “a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective active in an effort to ensure effective coordination during incident response” (National Incident Management System). When an emergency threatens health and safety, planning and preparedness saves lives. During a disaster, you're on the front lines caring for your patients, supporting your staff, protecting your organization, and helping your community recover.
The first step in developing an emergency response plan is to conduct a risk assessment to identify potential emergency scenarios and then analyze what could happen if a hazard occurs. There are numerous hazards to consider. The approach for training and testing is based off your organization’s identified hazards (HVAs), with many possible scenarios that could unfold depending on timing, magnitude and location of the hazard. An all hazards approach would include a risk assessment for the following three main conditions:
Natural Hazards
Meteorological - Flooding, Dam/Levee Failure, Severe Thunderstorm (Wind, Rain, Lightning, Hail), Tornado, Windstorm, Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, Winter Storm (Snow/Ice)
Geological - Earthquake, Tsunami, Landslide, Subsidence/Sinkhole, Volcano
Biological - Pandemic Disease, Foodborne Illnesses
Human-Caused Hazards
Accidents - Workplace Accidents, Entrapment/Rescue (Machinery, Water, Confined Space, High Angle), Transportation Accidents (Motor Vehicle, Rail, Water, Air, Pipeline), Structural Failure/Collapse, Mechanical Breakdown
Intentional Acts - Labor Strike, Demonstrations, Civil Disturbance (Riot), Bomb Threat, Lost/Separated Person, Child Abduction, Kidnapping/Extortion, Hostage Incident, Workplace Violence, Robbery, Sniper Incident, Terrorism (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives), Arson, Cyber/Information Technology (Malware Attack, Hacking, Fraud, Denial of Service, etc.)
Technological Hazards
Information Technology - Loss of Connectivity, Hardware Failure, Lost/Corrupted Data, Application Failure
Utility Outage - Communications, Electrical Power, Water, Gas, Steam, Heating/Ventilation/Air Conditioning, Pollution Control System, Sewage System
Fire/Explosion - Fire (Structure, Wildland), Explosion (Chemical, Gas, or Process failure)
Hazardous Materials - Hazardous Material spill/release, Radiological Accident, Hazmat Incident off-site, Transportation Accidents, Nuclear Power Plant Incident, Natural Gas Leak Supply
Chain Interruption - Supplier Failure, Transportation Interruption