8 Topics
5 Days
Programme Overview
Training Description
Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response training is essential for ensuring a coordinated, resilient organizational and community-wide response to sudden crises:
• Healthcare Leadership & Incident Commanders: Hospital executives, emergency managers, facility directors, and incident command system (ICS) leaders responsible for crisis governance and operational control.
• Clinical Staff: Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and emergency department personnel who manage surges in patient volume, trauma triage, and acute care during disasters.
• Facilities & Operations Teams: Maintenance engineers, security officers, environmental services, and IT specialists responsible for infrastructure integrity, facility lockdowns, and communication continuity.
• Support & Logistics Personnel: Supply chain managers, pharmacists, and administrative staff handling emergency resource allocation, procurement, and tracking.
• First Responders & Public Safety Liaisons: Hospital security, local emergency medical services (EMS), law enforcement, and public health officials.
Session Objectives
- Identify potential internal and natural disasters (e.g., active shooters, severe weather, mass casualty incidents, hazardous material spills, and pandemics) that threaten healthcare facilities.
- Navigate the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) structure, recognizing individual roles, reporting lines, and operational chains of command during emergencies.
- Execute mass casualty incident (MCI) triage protocols (such as START/SALT triage) to rapidly sort and prioritize patients based on clinical urgency and resource availability.
- Implement emergency facility procedures, including evacuation, shelter-in-place, lockdown, and utility failure protocols.
About the Course
Welcome to the training on Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response.
Healthcare facilities are unique entities: they must remain operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, often acting as the ultimate safety net when communities face catastrophic events. Whether confronting natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, floods), technological failures (power grid collapses, cyberattacks), biological crises (pandemics, mass outbreaks), or man-made emergencies (mass shootings, hazardous material exposures), healthcare organizations must be prepared to respond swiftly, effectively, and safely.
Emergency preparedness is not a passive insurance policy; it is an active, continuous process of planning, training, drilling, and infrastructure hardening. When disaster strikes, chaos is the primary enemy. Structured preparedness replaces panic with coordinated action, ensuring that facilities can protect patients, safeguard staff, and maintain continuity of critical lifesaving operations.
Curriculum & Topics
8 Topics | 5 Days
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Subtopic 1.1:
The Four Phases of Emergency Management: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.
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Subtopic 1.2:
Regulatory standards and accreditation requirements for healthcare emergency operations plans (EOPs).
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Subtopic 1.3:
Vulnerability assessments and identifying facility-specific risk profiles.
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Subtopic 2.1:
Understanding the core structure of HICS and the Incident Command System (ICS).
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Subtopic 2.2:
Key leadership roles: Incident Commander, Operations Chief, Planning Chief, Logistics Chief, and Finance/Administration Chief.
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Subtopic 2.3:
Establishing clear lines of authority, span of control, and interoperability with community emergency services.
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Subtopic 3.1:
Defining a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) and managing resource-to-demand imbalances.
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Subtopic 3.2:
Rapid triage methodologies: START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment) for adults and JumpSTART for pediatrics.
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Subtopic 3.3:
The SALT (Sort, Assess, Life-saving interventions, Treatment/Transport) triage framework.
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Subtopic 3.4:
Establishing external triage areas and patient tracking systems during surges.
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Subtopic 4.1:
Strategies for expanding physical space (converting waiting rooms, auditoriums, or outdoor areas into care zones).
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Subtopic 4.2:
Rapid staffing adjustments, credentialing emergency volunteers, and shift management.
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Subtopic 4.3:
Conservation, rationing, and redistribution of critical resources (blood products, oxygen, PPE, and medications).
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Subtopic 5.1:
Procedures for utility failures (total power loss, HVAC failure, water main breaks, and medical gas interruptions).
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Subtopic 5.2:
Facility security threats: Active shooter protocols (Run, Hide, Fight), bomb threats, and workplace violence lockdowns.
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Subtopic 5.3:
Evacuation decision-making: Horizontal versus vertical evacuation and managing vulnerable patient populations (neonates, ICU, and immobile patients).
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Subtopic 6.1:
Recognizing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) incidents.
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Subtopic 6.2:
Establishing hospital decontamination zones and utilizing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE levels A through D).
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Subtopic 6.3:
Protecting internal hospital environments from secondary contamination.
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Subtopic 7.1:
Internal communication during emergencies: Emergency notification systems, overhead paging, and redundant communication lines (radios, satellite phones).
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Subtopic 7.2:
Managing external communication: Public Information Officers (PIOs), media control, and family reunification centers.
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Subtopic 7.3:
Combating misinformation and maintaining transparency during a crisis.
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Subtopic 8.1:
Conducting "Hot Washes" (immediate debriefs) and "Cold Washes" (formal after-action reviews/AARs).
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Subtopic 8.2:
Identifying system gaps and updating emergency operations plans based on lessons learned.
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Subtopic 8.3:
Psychological support and recovery for staff experiencing trauma, critical incident stress, and disaster fatigue.
