Effective emergency management requires planning, cooperation, training and exercising with the entire community. Collaboration should start at the planning phase and continue throughout the entire Emergency Management Program development and implementation.
Local public health departments, local emergency medical services agencies (LEMSA) and the Department of Homeland Security, are all working together to test readiness for various scenarios. Hospitals should participate in the planning for these events as well as working with the Hazard Vulnerability Analysis for each hospital to coordinate community participation with the specific needs of the hospital.
Many hospitals used to develop specific plans for a variety of disaster and emergency situations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) now requires that hospitals use an emergency management system that is comprehensive, risk based, and all-hazard in nature.
Redundant communication refers to having multiple back-up communication modalities and is imperative in emergency preparedness planning. Past experience demonstrates that hospitals cannot depend on just one or two means for communication.
Hospitals may benefit substantially in achieving landline and cell communications and restoring communications after a disruption in service with and without a declared disaster.
NIMS courses ICS-100, ICS-200 and IS-700 or their equivalents should be completed by:
Yes, a hospital may utilize a vendor-created or delivered training course. The National Integration Center (NIC) recognizes that many operational aspects of the NIMS, including ICS training, are available through, state, local and tribal training agencies and private training vendors. It is not necessary that the training requirements be met through a federal source.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the NIMS Integration Center is responsible for facilitating the development of national guidelines for incident management training and exercises at all jurisdictional levels, while individual agencies and organizations are responsible for establishing and certifying instructors.
No. Completion of ICS courses by appropriate personnel satisfies two of the 14 NIMS Compliance Objectives for Healthcare Organizations (Objective 5 and Objective 6). The remaining objectives must also be met to make a hospital NIMS compliant.
No. A stand alone HICS course does not take the place of ICS 100, 200 and 700, which are specific requirements of the NIMS Objectives.