Guidelines: Emergency Operations Plan and Medical Transportation Gap Analysis Tool

Introduction

Throughout the pandemic, hospitals were faced with many challenges from COVID-19. This spurred the initiation of hospital incident command and necessitated numerous emergency measures to ensure that safety and compliance were maintained. The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), through a grant opportunity with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), has worked to develop an assessment tool for hospitals to evaluate their emergency operations plan (EOP) and plans for providing intrastate and interstate transportation. The goal is to determine the extent to which existing plans adequately address the management of individuals with Highly Infectious Diseases (HID).

This tool is intended to assist hospitals with identifying planning gaps and incorporating best practices in emergency management gleaned from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be used to highlight opportunities for improvement that your hospital can adopt to effectively continue the pandemic response as well as prepare for future infectious disease emergencies. While the assessment tool should enable hospitals to pinpoint any shortcomings and assimilate learnings from the pandemic into their plans, it is not intended to be a comprehensive evaluation of the all-hazard EOP, the emergency management program, or the medical transportation infrastructure. For a more in-depth all-hazards analysis, we suggest evaluating your planning using the requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or an accrediting body such as The Joint Commission or the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS).

How to Use This Tool

The tool is intended for use by hospital emergency managers, risk management, environment of care, infection control, and other personnel with a responsibility for their facility’s EOP and infectious disease response and transport procedures.

The tool is designed to generate insight, discussion, and analysis regarding the COVID-19 planning and procedures currently in place. The tool is divided into two sections—the first dealing with elements of the hospital’s EOP, and the second dealing with the hospital’s medical transportation capability. Each section contains a list of questions intended to assist the user to evaluate the degree to which their facility has planned and prepared in these areas. Generally, a “Yes” response to a question indicates a potential strength, whereas a “No” response indicates a potential gap and area for additional focus. 

The checklist format allows the user to keep track of the specific planning and response considerations their hospital has addressed. Additional resources to assist with the development of an emergency operations plan are available in the appendices of this document.
 

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Topics: Emergency Preparedness

Revision Date: 1/31/2023

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