Disaster Recovery Planning
John Kelley
HCS/533
April 28, 2012
Catherine Doughty
Disaster Recovery Planning
Natural disasters cause severe emotional stress, even for the strongest of us. These events, whether natural or manmade, disrupt life, as we know it. It is extremely important that we prepare ourselves, in any way possible, for these potential events. This holds especially true for our healthcare institutions, where we rely on consistent procedures and operations to protect our health and data. While this sounds like a lofty task, it can be achieved. One key factor is having guidelines and trainings in place for each type of disaster. There will be some overlap, but creating specific procedures will give the staff a clear how-to, thus reducing the confusion that is created by natural disasters.
Common Natural Disasters
Some of the most common natural disasters are hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and earthquakes, any of which could completely cripple a community. Each of these have unique factors, as well as, factors they can share. For instance, a hurricane can destroy buildings, and create flooding. An event like this can devastate hospitals and healthcare systems for a community. Imagine loosing valuable health data, and having to explain this to your patient. This is why thorough planning and training is so important. Creating backup procedures, checklists, and safety checks can make all the difference in getting a hospital or clinic back to operational. It is important to establish several key elements to mitigate the loss of patient data. This can be done by answering a few questions such as; what do we need to ensure that data isn’t permanently lost, how do we respond, what trainin...
... middle of paper ...
...y should be the wellbeing of the patients.
References
AHA American Hospital Association. (2014). Business continuity for the healthcare field: Critical steps to keep your facility up and running both during and after a disaster [White paper]. Retrieved from www.aha-solutions.org/.../agility-whitepaper-healthcare- 030712.pdf
Gamble, K.H. (2008). Weathering the storm. Retrieved from http://www.healthcare- informatics.com/article/weathering-storm
Information and guidelines for healthcare facilities and providers in the event of spring flooding or other natural disasters. (March 2010). Retrieved from http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/fpc/profinfo/ib10_2.html
Ranajee, Nav (2012). Best practices in healthcare disaster recovery planning. Retrieved from http://www.healthmgttech.com/articles/201205/best-practices-in-healthcare-disaster- recovery-planning.php
The National response plan outlines four key actions the disaster coordinator should take. They are gaining and maintaining situational awareness, activate and deploy key resources and capabilities, coordinating response actions and demobilizing. Throughout the response it is essential that responders have access to critical information. During the initial response effort the situation is will change rapidly. Situational awareness starts at the incident site. For this reason it is essential that decision makers have access to the right information at the right time. By establishing an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) all key responders are brought ...
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
Bissell, R. (2010). Catastrophic Readiness and Response Course, Session 6 – Social and Economic Issues. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/crr.asp
"FAQ: Disaster Recovery Planning for Health Care Data." SearchHealthIT. Ed. Anne Steciw. TechTarget, May 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
Tasked by the ACF, our team of disaster case managers and responders are on the scene within 72 hours of its start. From there, ACF Immediate Disaster Case Management (ACF IDCM) starts meeting with those suffering from the disaster to fully access what is needed for a proper recovery. While tasked by the ACF, the IDCM program is completely self-sufficient while receiving support from BCFS EMD’s Incident Management Team. Through BCFS’ support, the program is provided complete operations, logistics and planning support to meet its
Having a basic understanding of community or national emergency plans can assist families in disaster. This is especially true during the response phase. The National Response Framework (NRF) is a great example of a national community reference. According to FEMA’s publication, “The National Response Framework,” from 2013, the NRF is a guide which describes the basis of national response to any form of disaster. The NRF was developed from a long line of response guidance plans. The first was the Federal Response plan which was replaced by the National Response Plan. Then in 2008, the NRF was developed to make national response guidance more efficient as well as to include practices created after Hurricane Katrina. The NRF is comprised of 4 sections. These are the foundation document, the Emergency Support Functions (ESF) Annexes, the Support Annexes, and the Incident Annexes. These annexes describe how the NRF can be implemented. It is important to note that the NRF and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) are meant to work in conjunction with each other, while NIMS and its component the Incident Command System (ICS) supply the NRF with an incident management function (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2013c, pp. 2-3). The NRF is based on several guiding principles. These are engaged partnership, tiered response, scalable operations, unity of effort/unified command, and readiness to act (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2013c, pp. 5-6).
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2010).Introduction to emergency management. (4th ed., pp. 1-26). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
The goals include increasing nurses’ awareness of their roles and responsibilities in preparing for and responding to a disaster. There are web-based courses available for professionals who are not necessarily planning to deploy to a disaster site but working in hospitals, schools or long-term care settings. These individuals could help with the long-range planning of patients involved in a disaster. The course is designed to protect the nurse and the public through the use of universal precautions, protective equipment, evidence collection and isolation precautions. These are areas that the emergency nurse may not consider when volunteering on the front line of a disaster (Stokowski, 2012). Other areas of the course include how to prepare for a disaster, who to notify when an event is unfolding, the assessment, diagnosing and treating of injuries and illnesses, incorporating clinical judgment skills, and supporting the community after the disaster (Orr,
Finally, safety is the number one priority in order to survive and recover from any major catastrophic event. Education is the key to prevention. Know your local area and common disasters that occurs in that particular area. Knowing what they are and how to protect yourself will in terms help the recovery and healing process faster and easier for you and your family.
Disaster Recovery Planning is the critical factor that can prevent headaches or nightmares experienced by an organization in times of disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan marks the difference between organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost, effort and with maximum speed, and those organizations that cannot. By having back-up plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also detailed disaster recovery plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the disrupted time for their normal business functions. Thus it is essential that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid out and carefully updated regularly. Part of the plan should include a system where regular training occurs for network engineers and managers. In the disaster recovery process extra attention should also be paid to training any new employees who will have a critical role in this function. Also, the plan should require having the appropriate people actually practice what they would do to help recover business function should a disaster occur. Some organizations find it helpful to do this on a quarterly or semi-annual basis so that the plan stays current with the organization’s needs.
In face of disasters occurring more frequently and threatening people’s life around the globe, the need to have well-prepared nurses has never been greater; however, according to Loke & Fung, (2014) states that more than 80% of nurse volunteers that participated in a disaster event had no previous experience in disaster response. The need to be prepared has led to heightened concern about the adequacy of effective disaster response plans that will allow the healthcare workforce to respond to large-scale health emergencies (Skryabina, Reedy, Amlôt, Jaye, & Riley, 2017). It was suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) that, no matter how unusual disasters happened, all nations should educate and train healthcare workers for a major disaster (Loke & Fung,
Education of all personnel is key. Simulations like the Franklin County are great sources. Schools, hospitals, public and private companies to consider preforming drills or simulations in preparation for disasters such as. Many counties have such drills which sometime involve local hospitals, emergency personnel, and local high school students acting like victims with certain issues like head injury, burns, and other injuries which can occur. The television and radios do emergency testing which reminds watchers monthly the sound and the protocol that occurs in an emergency.
Most health care providers currently utilize electronic health records (EHRs), or will in the coming future. Network collapses, glitches, power outages and flaws within the system all have the possibility of occurring. Due to the plethora of sensitive information contained within the health care field, health care providers need to form backup plans. These backup plans will serve as preventative measures in order to keep the integrity of the health care data intact. Therefore, contingency plans are a clear necessity within the field.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential disasters that could affect a community and cause mass causalities. Further discussion will include who is responsible for the management preparedness, what barriers must be considered and finally this paper will discuss the health care facilities role in emergency supplies and care of the patient in a disaster situation.