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Book Excerpt, Part 2: Hot Topics in Emergency Management

Emergency Management Alert, September 4, 2007

These days, the world of emergency management is awash with new information-creating a new risk that information of true importance can disappear. Here to help safety officers home in on the main issues of concern for emergency managers is Steven MacArthur, a safety consultant for The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro. In the Hospital Safety Director's Handbook, appearing this month, MacArthur covers  today's hot topics for those who manage risk in the healthcare environment. This second  of two excerpts offers core tips on emergency management planning.

Key to preparation

The key to preparation is an understanding of the types of materials your facility could encounter, regardless of their origin. Become familiar with methods of treating patients, particularly those who have not first been seen by emergency response personnel or not been decontaminated. Establish procedures to protect staff from exposure and contamination when they evaluate and treat victims. Make sure that staff are familiar with, and comfortable using, personal protective equipment (PPE) when dealing with the possibility of contaminated patients-not just because it is mandated by regulatory authorities, but because it is the appropriate thing to do. Historically, there has been some reluctance to don appropriate PPE because it is felt that their appearance can frighten patients or compromise caregivers' ability to communicate with their patients to an unacceptable level. This is why it is important to include the actual use of PPE during response tests-you will not have the luxury of making staff comfortable during a real event.

Regardless of your specific role in your organization's response plan, what is clear is that you must maintain a clear sense of the potential for harm and injury that managing these types of occurrences represents. Although you will not be working alone, it is important that, as part of your organization's response team, you appropriately manage those challenges within your assigned duties.

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