CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT | Disaster Planning

No emergency preparedness program is complete without a continuous quality improvement (CQI) program. The optimal way to ensure that programs and plans are updated and effective is through the use of a sound CQI program that evaluates the various parts of the emergency management program, identifies deficiencies and issues for action, and develops and tracks solutions for those identified problems. Plans will need to be changed or modified as resources, requirements, threats, and vulnerabilities fluctuate.

CQI programs should include prospective, concurrent, and retrospective review. Prospective review may evaluate resource inventory control and tracking, personnel training, or currency of memoranda of understanding. Concurrent review usually occurs as drills, exercises, or response operations are conducted and evaluated. Retrospective review often involves identifying specific events (such as a motor vehicle accident involving multiple casualties) and performing a retrospective record review to determine areas of difficulty in operations that may translate to further problems in the event of an even larger disaster.

A periodic review of the facility plan is advisable every six months to one year. The plan should also be reviewed after any exercise to accommodate shortfalls or better ways to accomplish certain disaster tasks. However, the best and most critical time to review your facility plan is after a real disaster that tests every part of your plan. A critique of the disaster from impact to recovery should indicate areas of the plan that worked well and areas that did not work as planned.

After objectively reviewing the findings from your disaster critique, the plan is ready for revision, addressing any gaps and shortfalls discovered. Action to be taken should be fully documented, with time frames for completion or implementation. Those you cannot act on at the present time should be noted and carried forward for future action. A substitute or other means of remedying the situation or problem should be found.

After the plan has been revised, approved, and shared with all involved, it must be tested and reviewed once again, implementing suggestions for improvement at each opportunity. A good planning and quality improvement process never ends.