An emergency operations plan constitutes the structure and process that an organization has put in place to respond to a disaster and the first steps to recover from a crisis. This emergency operation plan has mainly been put up in hospitals and governmental institutions, ensuring that they are well covered in a tragic event ( Penadés et al., 2017). An effective, sustainable and efficient emergency operation plan should include seven main components. They have safety and security, communication, utility management, regular testing and evaluation, patient and clinical support activities, staff responsibilities, and resources and assets (Penadés et al., 2017). An organization can evaluate its emergency operation plan by practicing through the procedures by performing drills among themselves. They can also assign responsibilities and priorities to know what to do in case of a disaster.
An organization can evaluate its emergency operation plan through regular reviewing and updating of the procedures. It can also assess the organization's challenges that may cause hazardous damage and plan for the actions to be taken before, during, and after an emergency (Penadés et al., 2017). An emergency operational plan should be effective; therefore, a company can ensure this by making the emergency operation plan easily accessible to the staff and any person visiting the organization (Penadés et al., 2017). They can also do this by providing current contact information that people can reach out to in a disaster.
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According to Fagel (2010), the emergency operations plan provided in his book aligns with the components of an effective emergency operations plan. This is because it includes a basic plan that outlines general information such as the purpose statement, situations that warrant the emergency plan, the concept of operations that explains how, when, what, and whom should be involved, and how they should respond to a disaster. This emergency plan also contains the organization assignment of responsibilities section where it outlines each staff's duties in case of a disaster. It also includes the planning section where it outlines the plan's participants; it also describes the process and assigns planning responsibilities.
The strength of this emergency operations plan is that it contains the major components of an emergency plan. This is evident through the sections provided in the plan that show effective communication, staff responsibilities, security and safety, and the plans regular testing and evaluation. The plan is also strong because it provides an appendix that clearly states out and makes the emergency operations plan accessible to anyone in the organization (Fagel, 2010). It also outlines the participants for the planning and describes the emergency plan protocols in the plan. It also states ways that will enable one to gain the cooperation and attentiveness of people in case of an emergency; this is a strength because it is hard to coordinate everyone to ensure a quick evacuation and response (Fagel, 2010). However, the plan is weak because it fails to mention the hierarchy of command, leading the people to an emergency. The plan should provide this information and make it known to the people to guide them during responding to a disaster.
The emergency plan provided by Fagel (2010) is an efficient and effective emergency operation plan. However, to improve it, the planning participants should include the hierarchy of command and plan to review the structure often to keep it updated.
References
Fagel, M. J. (2010). Principles of emergency management and emergency operations centers (EOC) . CRC press.
Penadés, M. C., Núñez, A. G., & Canós, J. H. (2017). From planning to resilience: The role (and value) of the emergency plan. Technological forecasting and social change , 121 , 17-30.
