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Document
components of Emergency Management plan & procedure from strategic
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Commentary
When an emergency occurs it is doubtful that staff will have the ability to spend
time on lengthy consultation, or reading detailed plans; therefore plans should
be clear, unambiguous and easy to use. To this end, the organisation may wish
to consider developing a checklist that encapsulates the essential procedures/steps
that need to be undertaken. These may take the form of a quick cue card for staff
to use in an emergency, and which :
- outlines how to go about
evacuating the site
- has details of emergency
contacts for key staff (names and contact details)
- details an address for
off site evacuation including key contact person and contact details.
The organisation must ensure
that they have in place systems that enable them to know who is on site, so
that the safe evacuation of the premises/site can be undertaken. Therefore the
plan should not only include the residents/clients, but also staff, visitors,
contractors and pets. When all stakeholders are considered and factored into
the plan, it ensures that individuals do not delay or impair the effectiveness
of of the evacuation.
Document guidelines on what
items should accompany each resident; this may be facilitated by the compilation
of an emergency resource pack for each resident (made up of essential items).
Again the collection of these items should be referenced in the roles and responsibilities
section of the plan.
Tracking of residents when
they leave the site, is essential, to ensure that the organisation can assist
in resident continuity of care, guide resources to correct locations, and assist
families to locate their relative
Actions
Identify the key steps in the Emergency Plan ensuring that an All Hazard Approach
is taken.
10Develop and/or update
hazard identification:
- Ensure the facility/organisation
has conducted a hazard identification according to known and anticipated (regional
and seasonal) environmental, climactic and human-instigated hazards, these
include:
- Environmental (for
example, toxic gas leakage, pandemic infections
- Natural disasters
(for example, cyclones, floods, tsunami, earthquake, etc)
- Essential service
failure (for example, water, gas, electricity, sewerage etc)
- Human -made (for
example, terrorism, war, bomb threats etc)
- Building and structural
failures
- Identify and document
the identified hazards (and/or classifications), the range of potential incidents
(combined incidences which have accumulative hazard consequences), within
the evacuation procedure
manual/system.
- Identify and document
the circumstances that could precipitate an off - site evacuation.
- Identify and plot pathways
of triggers for evacuation (including preparatory steps), to guide staff in
the
decision-making process.
Develop
and implement site specific plans
- Ensure that procedures
are site specific and reflect the real geographical and physical environment
of buildings
and their location, ensuring that assembly and collection points are suitable
(safe).
- Ensure that the relevant
Hazard Management Agency is involved in the instruction and approval process
for evacuation,
as some emergencies and respective coordinated responses are the domain of
this Agency.
- Communicate the evacuation
plan to the Department of Health & Ageing, and other relevant stakeholders
(Aged Care Standards & Accreditation Agency).
- Consider developing quick
reference cue cards for staff that outline what to do in an emergency evacuation,
and consider placing these in key staff areas.
Who
to include in the plan and their roles in evacuation
- Procedures should reflect
all stakeholders, that is, residents/clients (permanent and day stay), visitors,
staff and contractors.
- If the facility maintains
pets on site, ensure their welfare is considered and documented within these
plans
(you may wish to access the pet policy, which outlines routine care needs),
including the identification of
a local vet/boarding contacts, and the safe re-location and care of all pets.
- Identify and map the
roles and responsibilities of key personnel and staff, reflective of the facility
and
organisational chain of command.
Accessing
and retrieving essential information
- Identify essential information
that must be removed from site (roster, medication charts, care plans,
back up disc/CD containing relevant business and resident information) and
assign these tasks to relevant staff (this may need to be recorded in the
“roles and responsibilities” section of the plan).
- Ensure a process is in
place to protect resident/client information, i.e. consider a system to routinely
back up Resident Information (see Information Technology disaster recovery
plan section)
- Consider essential equipment
that may be needed to retrieve/access stored information, such as portable
laptops and printers.
What
to take in the event of an evacuation:
- Determine guidelines
on what essential items should accompany each resident/client, and consider
establishing a resident/client emergency backpack store for the routine storage
of some of these items.
- Clearly outline the essential
items required for evacuation, their location, and who is responsible for
coordinating and carrying out the retrieval of these items.
- Ensure all stakeholders
are evacuated, and systematic checking processes are in place to confirm area
evacuation and location vacancy, for:
- Residents/clients
- Resident/client representatives
or visitors
- Staff
- Volunteers
- Contractors
- Ensure all essential
documentation/forms, equipment and resources are accessible in one central
location (if feasible).
Where
to go when evacuation occurs
- Clearly outline the onsite
evacuation points
- Outline the immediate
off site evacuation locations (including address, new location key personnel
names
and contact details, and maps to assist in transportation etc)
Essential
notifications of evacuation
- Ensure key personnel
(may be corporate services or emergency services that carry out this task)
communicate
to all relevant stakeholders the need to evacuate, and the location points
for re-housing of residents/clients.
These should include:
- Designated person
in chain of communication
- State emergency services
and related bodies.
- The designated communication
person should notify oncoming rostered staff, resident’s/client’s
next of kin or representatives, key medical staff who service the organisation,
relevant external services/contractors, relevant
and nominated facilities/sites who have an Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) and who will be receiving residents/clients.
- Notify the Commonwealth
Department of Health and Ageing, and the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation
Agency and other relevant state officials/authorities, as required.
How
to track off site evacuation
- Develop and implement
a process for monitoring and tracking resident movements in the course of
an evacuation i.e. to other sites, hospital etc, and ensure that the responsibility
for maintaining this, and communicating this to relevant stakeholders, is
factored into the roles and responsibilities for staff.
- A checklist may be beneficial,
outlining the destination of residents/clients, the resources (physical and
staffing) that have been sent to support the resident/client at the new destination,
and the total allocation of placements per destination (if multiple destinations
are utilised).
Back
to Development Framework
10
All Hazard Approach
- simply means one plan fits all hazards including evacuation, that is, you
do the same thing for evacuation, irrespective of the cause
Resource:
Government
of WA - Guidance Note Preparing for Emergency Evacuation at the Workplace
- Emergency
Evacuation Procedures for People with Disabilities and
Medical Conditions - Access and Egress for Disability
- Pandemic
response plan
Australian
Government Emergency Management
FESA
Aged Care Guidlines (Word Document 3.6Mb)
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