Emergency Preparedness: What you need to know

• The health system annually reviews our Hazard Vulnerability Analysis. This tool helps us determine the highest threat risk to certain types of events and our ability to limit the impact to hospital/health system operations.
  • Natural Events – severe weather, epidemics
  • Technological events – Utilities failures, supply shortages, transportation events
  • Human Events – Mass casualty, Armed Assailant, Bomb threat
  • Hazardous Materials/Terrorism Events – Radiation Exposures, Chemical Spills/Exposures
• From here, policies & procedures are developed or revised to outline the hospital’s/health system’s response to Emergencies and prioritize our activities, like drills. Our Policies and Plans can be found on the UM SRH intranet page in PolicyManager.
• The health system has developed an Emergency Operations Plan. This plan outlines how the hospital/health system will organize itself to manage emergencies and how we manage major functions in emergencies.
• An Incident Command Center may be set up and is the central place where information is gathered and instructions sent out to manage the event. Generally, the Administrator on Call will decide if incident command needs to be set up.
  • Easton Command Center – Behavioral Health Conference Room, 1st floor
  • Chestertown Command Center – Boardroom, by Administration Offices
  • Dorchester Command Center – Boardroom, By Administration Offices
• The Incident Command and command staff will set objectives to manage the event and will consider:
  • Communications – information sharing and notifications
  • Resources & Assets – People, Places, Supplies & Equipment
  • Staff Response Activities
  • Safety & Security – of buildings and people
  • Clinical Activities – surge/bed management, continued outpatient activities
  • Utilities Management
  • Volunteer management

Know Your Role:

• Review Plans/Policies/Procedures to know how to respond to events.
• Take advantage of Education/Training opportunities and participate in Emergency drills to become familiar with emergency response activities.
• Be prepared personally. Plan. Be Informed.

For additional information please contact:

Beth Copp
Regional Manager, Emergency Preparedness
ecopp@umm.edu
443-786-5529

Michelle Kirk
Director of Facilities
michelle.kirk@umm.edu
410-822-1000, x5464