Documentation of Cooperation and Collaboration
- Join your regional healthcare coalition. It’s your best source of “cooperation and collaboration,” and you are likely to get free training and exercises, and often free lunch. It’s where you will get all the answers to the regional questions in our emergency plan, and where you will meet the other facilities and suppliers that you will need in an emergency. If your local emergency manager is going to “cooperate and collaborate” with you at all, he or she will be at the coalition meetings. (Don’t know how to reach your regional healthcare coalition? Ask us!)
- Forget about Federal and even state emergency preparedness officials. They don’t want to hear from you, before or during an emergency. There is a strict chain of command in place. You will communicate with either your coalition, if it has a response mode, and/or your local or tribal emergency manager, in an emergency. If neither of those places can help you, then one of them will contact the state emergency operations center to attempt to help you meet your needs. Only the state can contact the Feds.
- Send a copy of your emergency operations plan to your local emergency manager and your regional healthcare coalition after each substantial revision. It is a requirement in some states for some provider types (e.g., nursing homes in Florida) and it is good practice. Include a cover letter, and keep a copy of the cover letter in your compliance binder.
Continue reading more on this subject in our five-part series!
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