Most workplaces are required by one or more laws, regulations or fire codes to have an emergency action plan (EAP).
OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910.38 standard mandates that employers develop and implement an EAP for occupancies including workplaces with hazardous materials or processes, high-rises, healthcare facilities and educational buildings.
Most fire codes (based on NFPA 1, NFPA 101, International Fire Code) also require emergency action plans for many building types, and refer to applicable standards such as:
- NFPA 1660 Standard for Emergency, Continuity, and Crisis Management: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery
- NFPA 2800 Standard on Facility Emergency Action Plans
For healthcare occupancies, the Joint Commission (for accreditation) requires Emergency Action Plans as part of compliance with NFPA 101 Life Safety Code as well as even more comprehensive emergency management standards.
EPM can assist in the preparation, consolidation or revision of comprehensive emergency action plans (EAPs).
Depending on the type of occupancy, the EAP may include the following elements:
Emergency preparedness assessment, hazard identification, review of multiple emergency scenarios, occupant/patient characteristics, department responsibilities, e.g., to maintain patient care before, during and after emergency.
Procedures for:
- Personnel roles and responsibilities for both emergency planning and response
- Reporting fires /emergencies
- Emergency evacuation/relocation
- Critical employees who may remain in building during emergency
- Accounting for employees following an emergency evacuation
- Employee alarm system
Depending on the type of occupancy, the evacuation plans may need to include descriptions of procedures for the varying levels of evacuation, i.e., shelter-in-place, horizontal patient relocation, vertical patient relocation and building evacuation. Other elements include chain of command, decision making, roles and responsibilities and means of communication. This is supplemented by life safety drawings/evacuation maps, outdoor assembly (muster) areas and application of appropriate full-building evacuation response models, e.g., geographic model, resource model, acuity model, etc.
It is both essential and required for many types of facilities to have a well-organized and detailed emergency action plan in place to facilitate an appropriate staff response to various emergencies. It is important to understand the various requirements that dictate the elements of the plan, how they fit together and reference each other, in order to prepare, revise or consolidate a comprehensive emergency action plan.