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Factors to consider when choosing an incident commander

Emergency Management Alert, January 22, 2008

What makes for a good incident commander? Whom to choose? The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) says: 

The chief of your incident command system (ICS) should be a position, not a specific person in your facility, according to emergency response experts.

Because the chief needs to be on the job 24 hours a day, it is impractical to think that a chief executive officer (CEO) or department head can fulfill the role. Rather, the better choice is someone such as a nursing supervisor. That position is always filled and [that person] can be counted on to make sure the duties and functions of the ICS are carried out.

CEOs and other top administrators are better suited to keeping in touch with staff, talking to the press, and dealing with outside agencies during an emergency, experts said.

This information is based on the NFPA's Standard for Health Care Facilities, 1999 Edition, which includes emergency preparedness requirements for healthcare facility disaster management (NFPA 99-1999, Chapter 11). The standard establishes criteria for the development of an emergency preparedness program, including provisions for disaster mitigation, response, and recovery. The NFPA notes that since no single model of a disaster plan is feasible for every healthcare facility, individual plans should be tailored to address the needs of each facility.

More on this topic can be found by linking to HCPro's Hospital Safety Center.

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