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Emergency Plan 2018

UTMB Emergency Planning Meeting 2018
Prepare Yourself and Be Ready:
Annual emergency preparedness meeting for the UTMB community - April 25, 2018

June 1 brings the start of hurricane season and is a reminder to have emergency plans in place. Storms and other emergencies can happen at any time and can affect any part of the state where UTMB has operations. The April 25 meeting included general information of use in any emergency. 

Everyone is encouraged to review this one-hour, concise overview of UTMB’s emergency response plan.

Topics include:

  • How decisions are made in an emergency
  • The outlook for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Your role and responsibilities as an employee or a student in an emergency 
  • Maintaining security in an emergency and how you can help
  • The business continuity planning process for fulfilling our mission in an emergency 
  • How UTMB will communicate with you before, during and after an emergency
  • Cyber-security
  • Stop the Bleed demonstration
  • Fire preparation and response  

Updates

What’s New at a Glance

The updated UTMB Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) was approved by the Institutional Safety and Security Executive Committee on Dec. 21, 2017. The committee, chaired by UTMB’s president, Dr. David Callender, based updates on the annual program review. Key changes include:

  • UTMB adopted the language from Joint Commission “Integrated Emergency Management Program” to convey that the EOP is institutional in scope and applies to all campuses and locations.
  • The EOP now includes a process for requesting an ‘1135 Waiver’.
  • The ‘Scope’ section of the plan now refers to the inclusion of UTMB Continuity Plans which includes a Succession and Delegation of Authority Plan.
  • The Emergency Communications Plan is now incorporated by reference into the EOP.
  • Emergency training is now required for ALL STAFF (in accordance with new CMS/Joint Commission rules and standards).

The calendar year 2018 Preparedness Program was also approved at that time.

Priority Risks

Each year the UTMB President and the ISS Executive Committee formally adopt a list of Priority Risks for the institution. The implication of this is that in addition to our ALL-HAZARDS approach to emergency preparedness, we focus special attention on priority risk over time to increase preparedness through planning, risk mitigation, training, exercises, specific emergency supplies--and if appropriate, special contracts to address the risk. The ISS determines Priority Risks for the campuses. For clinic sites, clinic managers and staff as well as Ambulatory Services officials determine their priority risks specific to each location with the input of local officials.

2018 Priority Risks are:

1. Weather (Hurricane Flooding, Hurricane Wind, Extreme Heat, Water Shortage, Lightning)
2. Utilities Outage / Gas Pipeline Risk / Water Main
3. Disease Outbreak (including Ebola or novel High Consequence Infectious Disease)
4. Mass Casualty (e.g. Terrorism / Active Shooter / HF or other Chemical Mass Casualty Incident / South Texas Nuclear)
5. Cyber-Threats
6. Fire

This site is the online home for the UTMB Emergency Operations Plan, the Bioterrorism and Emerging Infectious Diseases Plan, Business Continuity Planning and related documents.

It is the policy of UTMB to provide a framework for response to emergencies, internal or external, naturally occurring or man-made, which will guide all staff in managing the event safely and assuring rapid recovery to normal operating conditions.

All UTMB faculty, staff, students, contract employees, and volunteers should have a working knowledge of the emergency preparedness plans relative to their department or school. They will be expected to follow the plan in case of an emergency.

The Emergency Operations Plan (requires UTMB log in) presented here is institutional, involving the hospitals, business and administrative offices, the schools, and institutes. Developed collaboratively by representatives from each of these areas, this information is reviewed annually, revised as necessary, and approved by the President’s Council.

References

New Training Requirement

New CMS rules and Joint Commission standards require that ALL staff be provided emergency training when hired and annually thereafter on: the UTMB Emergency Operations Plan; UTMB Priority Risks; Emergency Communications. This training must be documented.

UTMB accomplishes this through a variety of mechanisms including:

  • Web-based training after new-hire onboarding and annual compliance training
  • The Annual All-Hands Emergency Preparedness Briefing (live and web-based video)
  • Incident Command System training for designated staff members
  • Command Center position-specific and hazard-specific training for designated staff
  • Exercises
  • UTMB Webpage updates and social media posts
  • Cyber-security awareness efforts

The primary method of training and documentation is through the UTMB Annual Acknowledgement Process (UTMB log in is required). 

By UTMB policy every UTMB manager must meet with each employee prior to June 1 each year and discuss the employee’s emergency role(s). The manager should set expectations for fulfilling emergency obligations and how communications will take place for that department in emergencies. On completion of this discussion, both the manager and the employee fill out the online Annual Acknowledgement Form and attest that they have completed this process. The training should address the specific role or roles that the employee is expected to be able to perform (see sample roles below).

The training must also include information on to whom the employee would report in an emergency. Unless the employee is specifically assigned to the UTMB Command Center, the employee would normally report to the manager. The manager should be specific in explaining the role(s) and offer the employee the opportunity to ask questions.

Sample emergency roles:

  • Command Team Ride-out
  • Facilities Ride-out
  • Healthcare Shelter-in-Place
  • Evacuation Planning
  • Decontamination Team (Hospital Emergency Response Team)
  • HF Incident Care Team
  • Damage Assessment Team
  • Other duties as required by the department

UTMB is in the process of developing a UTMB-specific Command Center Training Program; information will be posted as soon as it is available.

Emergency Communications Plan

This plan is updated annually and provides important contact information for agencies that support UTMB during emergencies (see partial list; additional information will be posted upon review.)

UTMB Alerts – a key aspect of UTMB’s emergency communications plan is a mass notification system branded as “UTMB Alerts” UTMB officials will tailor emergency messages to the situation and can send notifications to all hands or to targeted groups. Individuals must keep their contact information up to date to receive these notifications. The most efficient method of communication is by text to a personal cell phone. See instructions for updating your contact information and your preferences for receiving messages (text messaging is recommended).

Other methods of communications

  • Global messages
  • UTMB Social Media Channels including Facebook and Twitter
  • Departmental Continuity Plans (e.g. departmental call trees, etc.)
  • Radios:
    • UTMB has UHF Radios that can operate on the state’s trunked emergency communications system and can reach Houston and Austin.
    • UTMB also has a HAM/High Frequency radio capability and satellite phone capability to use as a backup when other systems fail
    • UTMB Police operate radios on Law Enforcement Channels
  • Network and Internet-based Communications

The Intermedix applications WebEOC, EMTrack, and EMResource are the primary methods to communicate to other hospitals within our Healthcare Coalition and to the Catastrophic Medical Operations Center in Houston. Resource Requests during emergencies are sent via WebEOC

Disaster / Weather Emergencies

In the event of a disaster or emergency weather conditions, please refer to the following lines of communication for more information:

  • Information is available via the web at http://www.utmb.edu/alert. Should the UTMB web server go down, a second server is in place as a backup and will be available via UTMB's normal URL: http://www.utmb.edu. Additionally, an informational site may be activated at http://utmbinfo.com.
  • Sign up for UTMB Alerts, the university's emergency notification system.
  • Check your email and the university's social media channels.
  • Call the UTMB main operator at (409) 772-1011.
  • Monitor local television and radio stations.