Many organizations have developed emergency response plans to prepare for natural, technological, or man-made disasters. Too often, however, exercising — a key element of the plan development process — is neglected or ignored.
An emergency response plan that has not been exercised may fail during an emergency. Lack of understanding of credible threats and their potential impact, incorrect assumptions about internal or external resources, untested communications, or poor command of the emergency organization are common reasons for failure. Untrained personnel may be unable to make prompt, informed, and effective decisions. Exercising emergency response plans with realistic scenarios can help ensure that your emergency organization can safely and effectively manage emergencies. Put simply, exercising can often make the difference between success and failure in a real emergency.
Exercising emergency response plans helps enable a community, business, or school to evaluate and improve emergency preparedness. Exercises are designed to evaluate the adequacy of plans and the abilities of people and the organization to carry out the plan.
Evaluate your organization's state of readiness by asking yourself the following questions:
- How do I know that our plan will meet the test of an actual emergency?
- Do people within my organization know how to react to an emergency?
- Do our plans address all of the emergency situations or credible threats that could impact our facility?
- How will my emergency organization coordinate with local public emergency services as well as business continuity and executive-level crisis management teams?
- Does my organization have the trained personnel, equipment, supplies, and support to effectively respond to the credible threats that face the facility?
- Do we have the expertise needed to design, conduct, and evaluate an emergency response exercise?
- Have we established the appropriate written safety procedures to use when conducting an exercise?
Conducting an emergency response exercise involves three phases:
1. Planning the details of the exercise
2. Conducting the exercise
3. Evaluating the outcome of the exercise
There are a variety of exercises that an organization can conduct to test their emergency preparedness. Exercises can vary from:
- Tabletop exercises that include an interactive discussion with selected teams and individuals to evaluate their understanding of how to respond in different scenarios; the exercise also can be used to validate documented processes.
- Functional role-play exercises in which selected teams, units, or department members can put into practice applied policies and procedures for responding to an emergency.
- Full-scale exercises involving mobilization of community resources, such as fire, police, and emergency medical personnel and equipment.
By taking part in a variety of emergency response exercises, organizations can improve their overall emergency management capabilities and develop and maintain viable programs to better prepare them for an actual disaster.
The goal of any exercise is to improve your readiness. An emergency response exercise can help you:
1. Identify planning weaknesses
2. Uncover resource needs and shortfalls
3. Improve internal and external coordination and communication
4. Clarify roles and responsibilities
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact us.
