Welcome to Bluffton Regional Medical Center

Emergency Operations Plan - Introduction

1. OVERVIEW
The Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) provides an organized process to initiate, manage, and recover from a variety of emergencies, both external and internal, which could confront the Bluffton Regional Medical Center and surrounding community. Bluffton Regional Medical Center leaders, including leaders of the medical staff, participate in the development of this Emergency Operations Plan.

The EOP identifies the hospital's capabilities and establishes response procedures for when the hospital cannot be supported by the local community in Bluffton Regional Medical Center's efforts to provide communications, resources and assets, security and safety, staff, utilities, or patient care for at least 96 hours. Note, Bluffton Regional Medical Center is not required to stockpile supplies to last for 96 hours of operation.

The Emergency Operations Plan describes a comprehensive “all hazards” command structure for coordinating the six critical areas: communications, resources and assets, safety and security, staffing, utilities, and clinical activities.  The overall response procedures include single emergencies that can temporarily affect demand for services, along with multiple emergencies that can occur concurrently or sequentially that can adversely impact patient safety and the ability to provide care, treatment, and services for an extended length of time.

The Bluffton Regional Medical Center has updated emergency plans to establish the necessary policies and procedures to achieve preparedness and respond to and recovery from an incident.  The newly revised plans and procedures will be exercised and reviewed to determine and measure functional capability.  This is also in compliance with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) components (NIMS Element 7).

Bluffton Regional Medical Center EOP describes the recovery strategies and actions designed to help restore the systems that are critical to providing care, treatment and services after an emergency.

The EOP describes the processes for initiating and terminating Bluffton Regional Medical Center's response and recovery phases of an emergency, including under what circumstances these phases are activated.

The EOP identifies the individual(s) who has the authority to activate the response and recovery phases of the emergency response.

The EOP identifies alternative sites for care, treatment and services that meet the needs of its patients during emergencies.

If Bluffton Regional Medical Center experiences an actual emergency, it implements its response procedures related to care, treatment and services for its patients.

RESPONSIBILITIES
During an emergency, the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) will be in place.  The staff have been trained in NIMS and identified through the HICS system.

The Environment of Care/Emergency Management Committee
Vital to successful planning for any disaster is the identification and tasking of a select group of multidisciplinary hospital representatives to become members of the hospital's Emergency Management Committee (i.e., the Environment of Care Committee in some hospitals).  Involving local agencies such as police, fire/emergency medical services, emergency management, and public health in committee deliberations helps clarify roles and responsibilities and encourage personal networking.  This familiarization will help promote much needed priority setting, information-sharing, and joint decision-making during a real incident.  The committee meets regularly and consists of clinical and non-clinical representatives from key departments and functioning units of the facility.

The chairperson sets each meeting's agenda and facilitates the committee's work to achieve an annually established set of objectives.  Subcommittees or task groups are appointed to accomplish identified projects or to plan training and exercises as needed.  Minutes of each meeting are be published and disseminated as necessary.

DEFINITIONS
1.Internal Emergency

An Internal Emergency involves an incident within the hospital that disrupts normal hospital operations.  Incidents include bomb threats, utility failures, hostage situations, and infant/pediatric abductions.

2.External Emergency

An External Emergency involves an incident beyond the immediate boundaries of the hospital.  Such an incident can result in a sudden arrival of a large number of casualties, including contaminated or contagious victims, which involve the Emergency Department.  Other External Emergencies include snowstorms, utility outages, and tornadoes that may not impact the hospital directly, but could require a status alert for the facility.

3.Mass Causality Emergency

A Mass Causality Emergency involves a large influx of victims from an internal or external event requiring treatment, such as the result of a fire, explosion, train wreck, or bioterrorism event.  The victims may arrive at the Emergency Department via ambulance or other emergency service vehicle.

Any series of events which creates an overload situation in the Emergency Department may necessitate the use of the emergency procedures described in the Mass Casualty Plan.  The mass casualty emergency may be combined with other response plans used to protect the facility, such as in the event of an approaching hurricane or snow storm.

EMERGENCY CODES
The following Alert Codes are used to notify the staff of emergencies.  The alert codes and “all clear” signals are announced by an “over-head” page.

US Patent Numbers 7,720,998 B2, 7,836,207