Hospital Disaster Preparedness

Activating Hospital Emergency Operations Plans

Hospitals are required to have an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) detailing plans for responding and recovering from hazards. The plan must include 6 critical elements within The Joint Commission’s Emergency Management Standards:

  1. Communications
  2. Resources and assets
  3. Safety and security
  4. Staff responsibilities
  5. Utilities
  6. Clinical support activities

The “all hazards” approach allows ability to respond to a range of emergencies varying in scale, duration, and cause. The EOP addresses response procedures, capabilities and procedures when the hospital can not be supported by the community, recovery strategies, initiating and terminating response and recovery phases, activating authority and identifies alternate sites for care, treatment and services.

The Joint Commission Emergency Management Standards are very specific to the requirements of the hospital EOP, though some elements cross over to mitigation and preparedness activities. 

To help hospitals activate their EOPs, CHA has developed a tool with step-by-step instructions for activation and Hospital Incident Command System roles