Emergency Preparedness—Planning and Management

In general, emergencies can be divided into internal and external situations. Regardless of the nature of the emergency, the organizational response will be quite different when the emergency condition exists within the facility from when it occurs at some distant location. The actual emergency response programs of healthcare facilities indicate that much more effort has gone into a prepared response to external emergencies than to internal emergencies. Exceptions can be found in the areas of fire safety and bomb threat programs, in which various regulatory and accrediting agencies have considerable involvement. The planning and management of emergency incidents and conditions that healthcare organizations face daily come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. While some of these situations are intentionally created by man, others result from unintentional accidents, and still others are weather related. Each and every day, facilities react to a variety of emergency conditions.