In an emergency, make sure your staff can be reached
Make sure your calls get answered
During an emergency, you want to make sure you can call employees to ensure adequate staffing. While telephone notification is the best way to alert employees that they are needed, not all home health agencies have a plan that works, says Barbara B. Citarella, BSN, MS, CHCE, president of RBC Limited, a home care management consulting firm in Staatsburg, NY.
"One of the first steps is to make sure you have an up-to-date, accurate organizational chart," she recommends. In some large agencies, employees who put the emergency plan into action may not know who works for whom. A good organizational chart is important if the primary person to contact for one area is not available and the emergency coordinator must contact the next person in line, she adds.
When you are setting up your emergency notification call list, be sure you have telephone numbers for all independent contractors and per-diem staff, Citarella suggests. It may be necessary to call on them if your regular staff cannot work because of their own family situations during the emergency, she adds.
The notification plan is one part of an emergency plan that can and should be tested regularly, Citarella says.
Call everyone on the list, explain that it is a drill, and ask that they call the emergency coordinator as soon as they get the message, she suggests. At the time of callback, the coordinator can make a note as to the staff member’s availability and evaluate how many staff members would be on hand for a real emergency.
At the same time, check to see if you can place your hands on a current patient roster that includes telephone numbers, priority status, and geographic location without the help of computers or electricity. "Too many agencies rely upon computers to store their rosters," Citarella says.
If power is lost, or if employees can’t get to a computer to access the roster, agency personnel may miss patients, she points out.
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