4 Core Elements Your Emergency Preparedness Program Should Have
It cannot be denied that there are varying threats to public health every day. This has especially become more evident when the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency was declared last year. Despite measures to avoid a wide range of hazards, emergencies can still happen anytime. Given this, institutions, especially healthcare providers, must always be ready and prepared to respond to emergencies to mitigate the possible devastating human and economic consequences.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledged the need for an Emergency Preparedness Program (EPP) and rolled out a few years ago, the Emergency Preparedness Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participating Providers and Suppliers. This regulation enumerates the four core elements an EPP must have. If you are running or part of a home health agency which was listed as one of the 17 participating providers and suppliers, you should take note of the following EPP must-haves.
- Risk Assessment and Emergency Planning
When planning for emergencies, you must first conduct an assessment of the possible risks your agency may face. These could be hazards present in your geographic location, emergencies related to your care delivery, power and equipment failures, communication interruptions like cyber attacks, supplies loss, and facility loss due to a multitude of reasons such as fire, earthquakes, etc. Only when a risk assessment is conducted, can you develop plans to mitigate your risks exposure such as updating your existing emergency plans, and designing new training programs and exercises. The emergency plan was initially required by CMS to be reviewed at least once a year but they released an updated guidance last March 26, 2021 to lessen the frequency to a biennial review. Long term care (LTC) facilities though, will still continue to conduct an annual emergency program review. This new guidance also eliminates the need for the EPP to include efforts in contacting local, tribal, regional, state, and federal emergency prepared officials as well as the facility’s participation in collaborative and cooperative planning efforts.
2. Communication Plan
In addition to a risk assessment, agencies are also required to develop a communication plan which is fully compliant with federal and state laws. This should include the contact information of the entire agency’s staff, the patients’ physicians, and other necessary persons for emergency situations. This system of communication must also be well-coordinated within the agency, across health care providers, with the local and state public health departments, as well as emergency management agencies.
3. Policies and Procedures
The next thing to do would be to establish policies and procedures that are based on the results of the risk assessment you conducted. They should be compliant with federal and state laws and with the emergency plan. Some of the areas which should have specific and clear policies and procedures are evacuation plans, patient and staff tracking, and subsistence provision to patients and the agency’s staff. It is also advised that these policies and procedures are reviewed and updated regularly.
4. Training and Testing
The last core element is a training and testing program which must be developed based on your agency’s risk assessment, emergency plan, communication plan, policies and procedures, and federal and state laws. It is important to determine and lay out who will be target participants for the trainings, how often they will be trained, how their knowledge will be assessed, and how the training itself will be documented. On testing requirements, your agency must determine the full scale exercises you will conduct and in which format they will be. CMS requires that the training and testing program also be maintained and updated at least once a year.
These four elements are must-haves in every home health agency’s Emergency Preparedness Program. Make sure to have them in your EPP to be fully compliant. Data Soft Logic, as your Intelligent Care Partner, wants to keep you ready at all times to respond to emergencies and disasters. You can do this with Home Health Centre’s EPP module which can help you stay emergency-ready across all three levels: system, agency, and patient level. Learn more about this feature — contact us and schedule a demo now.
