Bioterrorism
Joint Commission offers emergency planning
guide
The Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has announced
the availability of an emergency planning guide, “Standing
Together: An Emergency Planning Guide for America's Communities,”
for small, rural and suburban communities to both prepare for and
successfully respond to major local and regional emergencies —
whether they be hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks, major infectious
outbreaks, hazardous materials spills, or other catastrophic
occurrences.
“The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is an all too
recent and stark reminder of the need to anticipate and plan for mass
casualty disasters,” says Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president,
Joint Commission. “Communities need to grasp the reality that they
may well be largely on their own for several days following a major
disaster.”
The comprehensive planning guide provides 13 essential steps
that local government and public health leaders can use to establish an
effective community-based emergency management planning and response
process.
These steps acknowledge that small communities face a number of
significant barriers to emergency readiness, such as uncertainty about
who is responsible for planning, how to fund emergency readiness
efforts, what exactly constitutes the planning and response processes,
and how to coordinate with state and federal emergency management
resources. This and other resources are available on the Joint
Commission Web site, www.jcaho.org. (10-5-05)
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