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The Critical Role of Home

Care Providers in Emergency

Preparedness & Response

It’s more than just a fire drill!

Diane Link, RN, MHA

Penny Carey, RRT

Is This Your Emergency

Preparedness Plan?

Agenda:

 Purpose of an Emergency Plan

 Steps to Design an Emergency Plan

 Design for Key Scenarios  Vulnerability Assessment  Incident Command Structure

 Understanding Four Phases that Emergency Plans assist: • Mitigation/Preparedness/Response/Recovery

 Evaluation of Emergency Plan  Business Continuity Plan



Disasters often happen quickly and without warning



Ensures providers react according to plan which will promote

safety of staff and patients

 We take care of vulnerable patients



Educate staff members and patients on appropriate steps to

follow

 Reduces stress during the emergency  Creates environment of consistency

Purpose of an Emergency Preparedness

Plan: Will Your Company be Ready?

Steps in Creating an

Emergency Plan

Vulnerability Assessment: “Environment”

 Identify the high probability of an event occurring for your location and the

amount of disruption that this event would have on your business

 Examples of Events:

 Natural Events (floods, snow storms, earthquake, etc)

 Technological Event (utilities, informational system failure)

 Human Events (Influenza/Pandemic Viruses, terrorism, civil disturbance, etc)

 Examples of High Disruption Patient Population:

 Ventilator/Oxygen or Infusion Dependent  Requiring daily skilled care

 No alternative caregivers  New patients on service

Natural Disaster Data for Maryland

1/2013-3/2014 data from NOAA

 Tornado - 12 events in 6 counties (Prince George’s, Baltimore, St. Mary’s,

Montgomery, Harford and Calvert)

 Thunderstorms with Winds – 32 events in 24 counties  Floods – 2 events in 2 counties (Garrett and Cecil)  Flash Floods – 19 events in 20 Counties

 Excessive Heat – 4 days in 17 counties

 Excess cold/wind chill – 4 days in 6 counties (Garrett, Cecil, Kent, Queen

Mitigate:



Lessen the severity of the event by completing the following

 Orientation of staff

 Ongoing education/reinforcement of staff  Develop education materials for patients

 Use already developed materials, but distribute  Coordinate with external resources

 Know local and federal resources

Preparedness:



Activities an organization undertakes to build capacity &

identify resources that may be used



For the Patient: Educate the following:

 Storage of basic living supply and medical supplies

 Educate on medical equipment that requires electricity

 Educate on back up power sources for life support equipment  Emergency Contact Information

 Evacuation routes

Education Materials for Patient/Family

 MNCHA’s Emergency Preparedness Project:

www.mncha.org/emergency-preparedness

 National Resources:

 US DHHS: http://www.phe.gov/preparedness/

 Emergency Routes: http://www.ibiblio.org/rcip/evacuationroutes.html#mar  Emergency Shelters: http://dhr.maryland.gov/transit/pdf/homelist.pdf

 Earthquake & Thunderstorm: http://www.redcross.org/  Flood & Hurricane: RedCross.org/SafeandWell

Preparedness:



For the Employee: Educate the following:

 Patients should be assigned a Priority ranking upon admission

 Allows you to triage in a systematic fashion

 Remember to re-evaluate patients and their priority level

 Develop an Incident Command Structure for your Organization

 Roles that staff assume in an Emergency

 Set up a strong communication system for staff

 Who to call when: Phone Tree System or Single “blast” message  Standardized template messages prepared ahead of time

Job Duties

 Incident Commander:

 Establishes and maintain command: All reports go to commander

 Public Information Officer:

 Central Point of Contact for all agencies/media

 Safety and Security Officer:

Job Duties

 Operation Chief:

 Directs all incident tactical operations

 Planning/Intelligence Chief:

 Collects and analyzes key data reports

 _{Formulates Incident Action Plan and prepares for next level of emergency}

 Logistics Chief:

 _{Responsible for acquisition of supplies and staff/evacuation planning}

 Finance/Administration Chief:

 _{Monitors cost, contracts and financial time reporting during and after event} All section chiefs/officers are part of post emergency evaluation

Response:



Actions taken and procedures implemented by the organization when

an emergency occurs. Allows for quick reaction



Providers should develop a Command Structure

 Operational status

 Needs from Staff to meet patient needs

 Communication plan to staff/patients/media  Documentation of events/actions taken

Sample of Emergency Preparedness Tasks

List for Potential Emergency Event

 Alert Staff via phone tree/voicemail/text alert

 Assigned staff to run daily census report by acuity level, case manager, type of equipment/supplies and demographics

 Appropriate staff to notify patients via telephone rescheduling visits as appropriate

 Scheduler to compile list of visits based on acuity level

 Manager to evaluate staffing/admission capacity/surge capacity and notify intake department and service line operations staff

Sample of Emergency Preparedness Task

List for Sudden Emergency Event (Tornado)

Continual monitoring of weather radio by EP officer

 Receptionist sends communication alert to all staff/overhead

announcement in office

 Scheduler identifies Patients/Staff that are in direct area of event and

notification is made via cell phone by office staff with advice to take cover/move to safe area

 Continual alerts as event progresses/alert to discontinue when event

Recovery:



Strategies, actions and individuals responsibilities necessary

to restore the organization’s services after an emergency

 May need to move into Business Continuity Planning  Evaluate the effectiveness of the Emergency Plan  Revise plans on lessons learned from event

Tools to Document Event/Drill

Incident Briefing

Incident name

Date

Time

History

Current Actions

Notes: Accomplishments/Issues

Corrective Action for each Issue

Review of Event and Next Steps

 Description & Scope of Disaster Event or BCP Scenario  Lessons Learned

 Strengths of Response

 Areas of Improvement to Response

 Recommendations for Enhancing Response Procedures

 Approved Recommendations for and Date of Policy and/or Procedure

Business Continuity Planning



Plan for essential ongoing operations in the event of an

emergency which would impact business operations



Create a plan to be able to prepare for the following:

Scenario 1- Key data application not available



Scenario 2-Network connectivity lost



Scenario 3- Building system interrupted or unavailable

Scenario 4- Key vendors unavailable

Evaluate: At Least Annually



If Emergency Plan is Implemented:

 Document all actions taken  Meet with Staff and review:

 What did not work (correct in plan and test in a drill)  What did work (celebrate and communicate)



If No Emergency During Year:

 Perform a drill/table top exercise or  Participate in a local disaster training

For more information contact:

Diane Link RN, MHA: Link Healthcare Advantage

[email protected] or 443.340.4646

Penny Carey RRT: Johns Hopkins Home Care Group

[email protected] or 410.288.8187