There is a sizeable body of evidence that supports planning for hazards, threats, and events that may impact access to, or the delivery of, healthcare services in a community. Each state has different requirements for healthcare organizations to ensure that they are properly planning for emergencies. The emergency management program (EMP) should detail how the facility implements the emergency management principles of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery and the personnel, authorities, and other details of program administration. Healthcare system planners must ensure that their EMP accounts for the current and changing landscape of requirements, regulations, threats, and hazards. Complying with standards and following programs (EMP) will help healthcare entities reliably respond to and recover from disasters, as well as work cohesively and effectively with emergency management partners.
The emergency operations plan (EOP) details what the facility or agency will DO during a disaster (incident command implementation, command center location and activities, specific plans by department, etc.). This plan should be developed as an all-hazards plan, and must integrate with local EOPs and coalition plans for information sharing and resource requests. Individual plans may also include specialty annexes for incidents such as burn, chemical, pediatric, or infectious disease (access the Plans, Tools, and Templates section in the rest of our Topic Collections for examples).
The resources in this Topic Collection highlight select standards, guidance, regulation, accreditation programs, and tools that can help healthcare emergency preparedness professionals create, or bolster the foundation of existing, programs and plans. Due to the interdependencies between, and reliance upon strong EOPs within EMPs, resources for both are provided in this Topic Collection. Resources are listed in separate sub-categories as appropriate. Though this Topic Collection is focused on healthcare, a limited number of public health agency plans are also included as resources in support of program and plan integration across partners. Access the Incident Management and Coalition Response Operations Topic Collections for more resources (particularly as coalition constructs and related documents can be a critical component of the EOP concept of operations).
Each resource in this Topic Collection is placed into one or more of the following categories (click on the category name to be taken directly to that set of resources). Resources marked with an asterisk (*) appear in more than one category.