September is National Preparedness Month—a designation that has been observed every year in the United States since 2004 to build awareness around the importance of emergency readiness. Why should you care?

Because when the time comes (and it will come) that you’re faced with a potential life-or-death situation and there’s a critical need for immediate action, you’ll be really glad you paid attention. And being prepared to help others is the right thing to do.

At Cincinnati Children’s, the Emergency Management team, in collaboration with many other internal and community partners, has put together a comprehensive plan to keep our patients, families, staff and neighbors safe when disaster strikes.

Our plan is an “All Hazards” plan. This takes into consideration all potential events and potential impacts across all areas of preparedness, response and recovery, including:

• Internal and external threats leading to evacuation
• Containment of damage and minimizing impact
• Communications—with patients, families, employees, other emergency responders, and the public
• Capacity and staffing
• Supplies
• Family reunification
• Media management
• Facilities restoration and repair
• And much more….

But a plan alone is not enough to deal effectively with a crisis. It requires that people familiarize themselves with it and stand ready to bring it to life at a moment’s notice.

For this reason, the Emergency Management team conducts and participates in exercises and drills, like the recent one with UC Health on Aug. 23 in Location D.

Said Amber Antoni, MSN, RN, director of Emergency Management, “We met with our emergency counterparts at UC Health—Trauma Services, Air Care and incident command leads—to test our capability to respond to a mass casualty event, or any event that could overwhelm either of our trauma centers. We talked through potential ways to coordinate transporting patients between our EDs, and sharing resources. We also reviewed our communication plans to best support each other and reinforce the importance of unified messaging. Our biggest strength is that we have established great relationships with UC Health and our own departments, and are able to work well together.”

A full-scale preparedness exercise also took place on Sept. 8, involving the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, local hospitals, EMS, police and fire departments, emergency management agencies and community liaisons, like the Red Cross. Volunteers posed as victims of a hard landing who were then transported to our ED for care. (See more photos from the drill.)

Said Amber, “Exercises like these are a great reminder that emergencies aren’t just contained within our walls. They happen in our neighborhoods. They cross state lines. The partnerships we have with all these entities and the opportunities to test our plans are what allow us to be as prepared as possible.”

What You Can Do

You have a key role to play in emergency preparedness. Here are some ways you can help:

• Yellow Emergency Preparedness binders can be found throughout our health system. These binders provide guidance for location-specific responses for fire, severe weather, armed and aggressive persons, bomb threats, utility failures and more. You are responsible for knowing your role in all these situations before they occur.
• Evacuation routes are posted near stairways on every floor of every building. Practice using these to improve your response and help you find your way, even in the dark.
• Check out the Emergency Management page on CenterLink for information about business continuity plans, preparedness checklists and guidance for inclement weather, including what to do if you need to stay overnight at work.
• Sign up for Active Assailant and Stop the Bleed training, offered by Trauma and Protective Services.
• Make sure your cell phone number is listed in your CenterLink profile so you can receive RAVE emails and text alerts. We send out test messages occasionally; if you are not receiving them, check to see why. (Get instructions on how to do this.)
• Be sure to complete your annual Safety, Health and Integrity campaign. It’s a great way to refresh your knowledge of safety practices.
• Preparedness begins at home. Make a plan for your family and practice it so that you can feel more secure about their well-being, even if you are unable to get to them.