N.H. Admin. Code § He-P 826.26

Current through Register No. 45, November 7, 2024

Section He-P 826.26 - Emergency Preparedness

(a) Each facility shall have an individual or group, known as an emergency management committee, with the authority for developing, implementing, exercising, and evaluating the emergency management program. The committee shall include the facility administrator and others who have knowledge of the facility and the capability to identify resources from key functional areas within the facility and shall solicit applicable external representation, as appropriate.

(b) The emergency management committee shall develop and institute a written emergency preparedness plan (plan) to respond to a disaster or an emergency.

(c) The plan in (b) above shall:

(1) Include site-specific plans for the protection of all persons on-site in the event of fire, natural disaster, or severe weather and human-caused emergency, to include missing clients and bomb threats;

(2) Be reviewed and approved by the local emergency management director and the local fire department;

(3) Be available to all personnel;

(4) Be based on realistic conceptual events;

(5) Be modeled on the Incident Command System (ICS) in coordination with local emergency response agencies;

(6) Provide that all personnel designated or involved in the emergency operations plan of the facility shall be supplied with a means of identification, such as vests, baseball caps, or hard hats, which shall be worn at all times in a visible location during the emergency;

(7) Develop and implement a strategy to prevent an incident that threatens life, property, and the environment of the facility;

(8) Develop and implement a mitigation strategy that includes measures to be taken to limit or control the consequences, extent, or severity of an incident that cannot be prevented;

(9) Develop and implement a protection strategy to protect life, property, and the environment from human caused incidents and events and from natural disasters;

(10) For (7) -(9) above, incorporate the findings of a hazard vulnerability assessment, the results of an analysis of impact, program constraints, operational experience, and cost-benefit analysis to provide strategies that can realistically be implemented without requiring undue expenses to the facility;

(11) Conduct a facility wide inventory and review, to include the property that the facility is located on, to determine the status of hazards that may be incorporated into the prevention, protection, and mitigation strategies and to determine the outcome of prior strategies at least on an annual basis;

(12) Include the facility's response to both short-term and long-term interruptions in the availability of utility service in the disaster or emergency, including establishing contingency plans for continuity of essential building systems or evacuation to include the following:

a. Electricity;

b. Potable water;

c. Non-potable water;

d. HVAC;

e. Fire protection systems;

f. Fuel required for building operations to include fuel loss, fuel spill, and fuel exposure that creates a hazardous incident;

g. Fuel for essential transportation to include fuel loss, fuel spill, and fuel exposure that creates a hazardous incident;

h. Communications systems; and

i. Essential services, such as kitchen and laundry;

(13) Include a plan for alerting and managing staff in a disaster, and accessing Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), if necessary;

(14) Include the management of clients, particularly with respect to physical and clinical issues to include:

a. Relocation of clients with their medical record including the medicine administration records, if time permits, as detailed in the emergency plan;

b. Access, as appropriate, to critical materials such as pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, food supplies, linen supplies, and industrial and potable water; and

c. How to provide security during the disaster;

(15) Identify a designated media spokesperson to issue news releases and an area where the media can be assembled, where they won't interfere with the operations of the facility;

(16) Reflect measures needed to restore operational capability with consideration of fiscal aspects because of restoration costs and possible cash flow losses associated with the disruption;

(17) Include an educational, competency-based program for the staff, to provide an overview of the components of the emergency management program and concepts of the ICS and the staff's specific duties and responsibilities; and

(18) If the facility is located within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant and is part of the New Hampshire plan for radiological emergency preparedness, include this plan in the event of a radiological disaster or emergency.

(d) The facility shall conduct and document with a detailed log, including personnel signatures, 2 drills a year at least one of which shall rehearse mass casualty response for the facility with emergency services, disaster receiving stations or both as follows:

(1) Drills and exercises shall be monitored by at least one designated evaluator who has knowledge of the facility's plan and who is not involved in the exercise;

(2) Drills and exercises shall evaluate program plans, procedures, training, and capabilities to identify opportunities for improvement;

(3) The facility shall conduct a debriefing session not more than 72-hours after the conclusion of the drill or exercise. The debriefing shall include all key individuals, including observers; administration; clinical staff, and appropriate support staff; and

(4) Exercises and actual events shall be critiqued to identify areas for improvement. The critique shall identify areas of non-compliance and opportunities for improvement based upon monitoring activities and observations during the exercise. Opportunities for improvement identified in critiques shall be incorporated in the facility's improvement plan.

(e) For the purposes of emergency preparedness, each licensee shall have the following supplies of food and water maintained on the premises based on the average daily census of clients and staff:

(1) Enough refrigerated, perishable food for a 3-day period;

(2) Enough non-perishable food for a 7-day period; and

(3) Potable water for a 3-day period.

(f) Each licensee shall have, in writing, a plan for the management of emergency food and water supplies required in (e) above, including the following:

(1) Assumptions for calculations of food and water supplies including maximum number of staff and clients, water source of supply, whether tap or commercial, and expiration in months, tracking of supplies, and rotation of products, contracts and memorandums of understanding with food and water suppliers;

(2) Storage location(s); and

(3) Back-up supplies.

N.H. Admin. Code § He-P 826.26

Derived From Volume XXXVIII Number 45, Filed November 8, 2018, Proposed by #12658, Effective 11/1/2018, Expires 11/1/2028.