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Tips on how to reach out to community emergency coordinators for drills.

Accreditation Connection, January 30, 2006

Hospitals must involve the community in at least one of the drills or, as an alternative, hold a tabletop exercise with community participants. However, the exercise can't replace one of the regular drills--in other words, if you conduct a tabletop exercise with community officials, you must still conduct two full-fledged disaster drills.

Community involvement can be challenging. If local authorities don't regularly stay in touch with hospitals, medical centers must take the initiative to reach out them.

Ideas of who to invite to community exercises vary, but organizations to consider include local police and fire departments, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the local or county bomb unit, emergency medical services, department of health officials, and the community emergency operations center.

Don't wait until the day of the drill to get to know these people, says James Kendig, MS, CSE, CHSP, vice president of safety, security, parking, and clinical transportation services at Health First in Melbourne, FL.

Your hospital's hazard vulnerability analysis' findings should tie into local, regional, and state agencies, so verify that your rated scenarios in that tool take a broad approach.

"Healthcare organizations should have a communitywide drill with multiple events going wrong at the same time," says Steven MacArthur, a safety consultant for The Greeley Company.

Testing your plans with outside participants will let all sides understand each other's expectations and help uncover conflicts that could tie up resources during a real incident, MacArthur says.

Kendig adds that by involving the community, hospitals can take advantage of expertise beyond their own when conducting drills.

Adapted from the February 2006 issue of Briefings on Hospital Safety.

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