We live in a complicated and complex world. This makes it essential for facilities to plan for emergencies.
As healthcare facilities provide care for patients, they need to be prepared in the event of a natural disaster, equipment failure, power failure, human error, and any other type of emergency that may arise.
How can facilities make sure to have an emergency operation plan that works?
Let’s analyze all the aspects of an emergency operations plan.
What is an emergency operations plan?
An emergency operations plan (EOP) is a facility-specific document that contains the outlines of how an organization will respond to disasters, emergencies, or hazardous or dangerous events.
In healthcare, an EOP is extremely important as it serves as a roadmap for the facility to run as smoothly as possible during any kind of emergency. Thus, an EOP ensures that:
- There is continuity of care during an emergency.
- Patients are protected.
- Healthcare professionals are protected.
- Critical operations keep running during said emergency.
When an emergency occurs, if an emergency operations plan is in place, the chances of a successful outcome increase. As part of an emergency plan, facilities must ensure that healthcare workers know exactly what to do.
Critical components of an EOP
The following are some key components typically included in a healthcare EOP:
- Cover a range of emergencies: The EOP needs to cover a wide range of emergencies, be they natural disasters, pandemics, power outages, active shooter events, etc.
- Identification of patients: The EOP should include an identification of patient populations, highlighting the groups at greatest risk with their unique needs during emergencies.
- Roles and responsibilities: A good plan should include clear roles, responsibilities, and lines of authority during any emergency. This way, everyone knows who is in charge and who to follow.
- Communication: There must be protocols in place to communicate internally and externally from the facility. Communication must be timely and accurate at all times.
- Resource allocation: In addition, good resource management of supplies, equipment, and contingency staff is important. For example, some facilities utilize PRN staffing platforms to have enough staff during an emergency.
- Protocols for essential services: During an emergency, there must be protocols in place to keep essential services running. In addition, there should be evacuation, shelter, or alternate care protocols in place.
- Protection for nurses and patients: It is important to emphasize that facilities must take the necessary measures to protect their patients, staff, and infrastructure.
Remember that a good EOP is always tailored to a specific facility.
Regulatory components for EOPs
Facilities not only benefit from having EOPs, but are required by law to have and implement them. Some regulatory foundations for EOPs include the following:
- CMS emergency preparedness rule: This rule, finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2016, mandates that healthcare facilities implement comprehensive emergency preparedness programs.
- Joint Commission Emergency Management (EM) standards: These standards, established by the Joint Commission, emphasize risk assessment, continuity of patient care, and facilities performing regular emergency exercises.
- State regulations: Depending on the state, facilities may have different requirements, so it is necessary to look for guidelines for different types of healthcare locally.
The four phases of healthcare emergency planning
There are four phases to emergency planning in healthcare: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Let’s take a look at the four phases.
1. Mitigation
Mitigation means identifying and reducing risks before an emergency occurs.
A fundamental step in developing an EOP in a facility is to conduct a hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA). This analysis helps to identify and prioritize facility-specific risks. In this way, facilities can work to reduce risks.
In addition, facilities need to reinforce infrastructure and implement policies to lessen the impact of potential emergency situations.
2. Be prepared
A prepared facility ensures readiness to respond to an emergency. To ensure that your facility is prepared, you need to include in your EOP the following:
- Training with healthcare emergency exercises
- A communications plan
- A staffing contingency plan
- Plans to ensure the continuity of utilities for the healthcare facility
- Up-to-date documentation
3. Response
A good facility response occurs when all healthcare professionals implement the EOP in the event of an emergency. That is, the facility activates the incident command promptly, executes the communication protocols, and manages the care of critical and non-critical patients.
4. Recovery
Once the emergency is over, it is important to be able to return to normal. For a facility, this means restoring normal operations, debriefing staff, evaluating the effectiveness of the response, and addressing long-term impacts.
In this way, it is possible for the facility to improve the EOP for the next emergency, and provide reassurance to everyone in the facility.
Emergency operations plans vary by facility type
Of course, making an emergency plan for a hospital is not the same as, for example, a long-term care facility.
What are some variations between different facilities when designing an EOP?
- Hospitals: A hospital has more complex and larger operations. It must include plans to respond to extreme emergencies, such as mass casualty events.
- Skilled nursing facilities: The population group in this type of facility is vulnerable, so the EOP should focus on sustaining the continuity of care while sheltering in place or evacuating.
- Assisted living facilities: In assisted living facilities, an EOP is more likely to consider the assistance of patients who need mobility and help with their medications. In addition, it is important to communicate with patients' families.
- Behavioral health: An EOP in behavioral health facilities must ensure continuity of mental health services and have a plan to secure environments.
- Home health agencies: For home health, facilities need to communicate actively with clients and prioritize staff safety.
What to include in my facility’s emergency operations plan
Here we provide you with a checklist so that your EOP has everything you need:
- Have you done a hazard vulnerability analysis to identify risks specific to your facility?
- Have you identified all potential risks such as natural disasters, utility failures, pandemics, etc.?
- Does your plan specify to whom what actions apply (i.e. staff, patients, specific units, etc.)?
- Is there a clear incident command structure with defined roles and responsibilities?
- Do you have a detailed communication plan that accounts for staff, patients, families, emergency responders, public health agencies, and even media?
- Are there protocols to ensure that patient care is maintained in an emergency?
- Are there safety and security measures in place to protect your staff, patients, and facility?
- Have you practiced this plan with drills or simulations to be sure everyone knows what to do?
- Are EOP updates completed annually?
- Have you updated your EOP with insights learned from the last emergency?
Frequently asked questions about EOPs
Some frequently asked questions about EOPs include the following:
What are some benefits of having an EOP in my facility?
Having an EOP outlines the facility's commitment to preparedness. It represents an action plan for responding to emergencies and protects patients, facilities, and clinicians.
How do emergency staffing plans differ between SNFs and hospitals?
Due to the broad scope of services they provide, hospital EOPs have to account for a wider range of potential emergency events.
Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are more likely to have EOPs that focus on sheltering in place or evacuation.
What is required under CMS’s emergency preparedness rule?
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires facilities to update the EOP annually, conduct an all-hazards plan with a risk assessment, and integrate with local emergency systems as part of staff training in the EOP.
How often should EOPs be updated or tested?
As mentioned earlier, the CMS requires facilities to update their EOP each year. However, after any event or drill, the CMS requires facilities to revise their EOP, incorporating any lessons learned from the mock emergency.
How can technology support emergency coordination in healthcare facilities?
Technology can be a game-changer during an emergency. It enables real-time communication inside and outside the facility. It also allows greater access to tools such as contingent staffing. For example, Nursa is a PRN healthcare staffing platform that fills critical gaps during emergencies.
Each facility should have a tailored EOP for its needs
The bottom line is that every facility must be prepared for an emergency. You must also practice to ensure that everyone in the facility understands their role in the event of such an emergency.
Learn more about how your facility can improve patient satisfaction and outcomes, boost nursing staff engagement, cost-effective staffing, and more with Nursa’s library of articles for facility leaders.
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