Disaster preparedness is critical for disaster management as it involves the readiness for the occurrence of an emergency, and how best it can be handled. Also, it encompasses identifying the possible risks, vulnerability, possibility of impacts, available resources and organizational capacity, responsibilities allocation, development of practices, and the implementation of an action plan. However, preparedness depends on timeliness, communication with critical stakeholders, together with the consideration of metrics. Moreover, contingency management is part of disaster management with an operational perspective. Therefore, it is essential for facilities to have emergency preparedness or contingency plans.
Best Time to prepare for Disaster with Key Stakeholders in Healthcare Organizations to ensure a well-rounded, All-hazards Plan
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The time to prepare for a disaster is before it occurs. The disaster management team should always be prepared to attend to casualty cases. According to Alaska, Khan, and Shalhoub (2017), all hospitals under consideration had no activity unannounced, implying that they were prepared in advance. Usually, awareness programs should be intensified, action plans developed, and practiced for preparedness. When plans are done during a crisis, they are prone to mistakes, higher costs, and loss of lives, which could be saved. On the other hand, key stakeholders required for an all rounded hazard plan in healthcare organizations are casualties, staff, and patients (Alaska, Khan, & Shalhoub, 2017). Disaster preparedness requires education, training, and monitoring of critical stakeholders. Thus, the participation of these stakeholders makes disaster management a mutual obligation, which is of essence as it teamwork improves effectiveness.
Key Metrics before an Event and information required during and after the Event
The metrics critical before the occurrence of an event include indicators, standards, and benchmarks. They are essential for preparedness during emergencies and responses to be undertaken. First, benchmarks are used for the evaluation and monitoring of possible emergency cases. Benchmarks are done by leaders in disaster management whereby skills are learned and put into practice for implementation. It involves a comparison of the practices in place with the best practices in the same field. The standards are the unit of quality to be attained in healthcare. They can be internally set or externally acquired through benchmarks or regulations. Deviations from the standards may cause more harm to patients and attract penalties.
AHA (2017) holds that an indicator provides a way of measuring and determining progress. They refer to related issues in health that must be maintained by partners in the health sector. The three metrics can be used in determining the severity of an event, how often the event may occur, and the possible steps for handling the emergency. The information is vital for training the technical team in disaster management, and in the provision of necessary equipment. Moreover, information is essential in identifying strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the flaws are rectified while capitalizing on strengths.
Metrics used to Examine Readiness or Resilience
Some metrics indicate the readiness and resilience of an organization to disasters. The first metric is the number of teams and staff involved in emergency responses. A more significant number of staff or team attending to emergencies indicates a high level of preparedness. Secondly, emergency response alerts and messages available in an organization also show readiness. They may be written warnings or the possible actions in case of a crisis. The danger zones or practices shall be restrained for the avoidance of potential risks. Moreover, incident scenarios and templates are critical for preparedness. They depict previous occurrences, which create awareness and readiness for other crises. Besides, the disaster management equipment available shows the resilience in disaster management (Wagstaff, 2019). Lastly, emergency response training indicates readiness for disaster. Training involves equipping the response team with appropriate skills for disaster management. The metrics are essential to keep the key stakeholders always prepared to respond to emergencies. Moreover, it gives confidence in outsiders that patients are in safe hands.
Importance of Contingency Management within a Healthcare Setting
Contingency management is based on the theory that effectiveness in management is dependent on the reciprocal relationship between specific situations and management behaviors. Therefore, from an operations management perspective, contingency management is vital since the approach of management is based on the prevailing circumstances (Wallace, 2016). In this case, there are variations in management approaches as each incident has a peculiar way of handling emergencies. Task motivation and circumstances in the contingency can be relevant to a healthcare administrator. Moreover, contingency plans are related to resource assessments as it involves resource identification and prioritization from the most important to the least important (Hughes, 2018). Besides, contingency plans are essential for identifying risks followed by drafting a contingency plan, and sharing with other stakeholders for implementation. Lastly, it is vital to revisit the contingency plans continuously to ascertain their effectiveness.
How as a Healthcare Administrator I will use this information to gauge My Organization’s Readiness for Crisis
As a health administrator, I can use the information on task structure to standardize and assess the operations of the staff. Moreover, it is prudent in the prioritization of resources so that more resources are allocated to the most crucial departments. The contingency plan is essential in measuring the level of preparedness concerning the risks prone to occur and allocation of resources. Since the process requires teamwork, all stakeholders ought to concur with the plans in place implying that the level of preparedness for crises would be high. Consequently, no crisis will find the disaster management team unawares as the equipment would be readily available, and experts well trained. However, if the situation is extreme beyond management, external assistance can be sought. Therefore, connections with external organizations like the Red Cross are essential for disaster management.
Conclusion
Disaster preparedness is done before the occurrence of a crisis. The key stakeholders in disaster management in health organizations are patients, casualties, and the staff. The key metrics critical before the occurrence of an event are benchmarks, standards, and indicators. They are essential for disaster management training and identifying strengths and weaknesses. Readiness and resilience can be determined by the equipment, training, and number of staff involved in response to an emergency. A contingency plan is essential for operations management as it requires prioritization of resources, identifying risks, formulation, and implementation of an action plan. It is vital to assessing organization preparedness for the crisis from the responsiveness other stakeholders.
References
AHA. (2017). Benchmarks, Standards, and Indicators for Emergency Preparedness and Response. Retrieved from http://www.searo.who.int/entity/emergencies/topics/EHA_Benchmarks_Standards11_July_07.pdf
Alaska, Y., A., Khan, A., A. & Shalhoub, A., A. (2017). Evaluation of disaster preparedness for mass casualty incidents in private hospitals in Central Saudi Arabia. Saudi Medical Journal, 38 (3), 302–306. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28251227
Hughes, K. (2018). How to Make a Contingency Plan. Retrieved from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/contingency-plan
Wagstaff, D. (2019). Top 10 Emergency Response Management Metrics. Retrieved from https://blog.pocketstop.com/top-10-emergency-response-management-metrics
Wallace, L. (2016). Leadership: Style and Situation: Contingency Theory. The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2016/11/21/style-and-situation-contingency-theory/
