Professional Documents
Culture Documents
POLICY:
Bayada Home Health Care, Reading (REA), has an emergency management plan
designed to provide continuing care or service in the event of an emergency that would
result in an interruption of client service. This plan may be implemented during
emergent events including business interruption, weather related situation or heightened
states of alert or actual acts of terrorism, including bioterrorism.
Prioritization of Emergencies
2. Power and Utility Failures (phone, electric): During the summer months we
are prone to severe thunderstorms and over the winter months ice storms may
result in lost of power. Our office has experienced brief power outages. During
these periods we maintained contact with our clients via cell phone. The power
companies were notified that our clients needed to be high priority for restoring
power. Some of our client purchased or have generators other clients went to
family members home until power was restored. The office has a power outage
flashlight in the event the flood lights do not operate.
3. Hurricanes There have been two in our area over the past 15 years.
Hurricane could potentially cause power outages and flooding.
4. Tornados There has been 2 tornados in Berks counties since the office has
been operational. One in 2012 and one recently in 2017.
6. Office Building Fire: Our office building has a doctors office in the building. To
date there have been no fires in our office complex. We have evacuation plans
posted throughout the office and have a designated meeting spot in front of the
office right on Abington Drive.
7. Pandemic Influenza- quarantine could directly increase demand for home care
services and at the same time significantly impact the ability of staff to travel,
staffing capacity and availability of necessary supplies for a prolonged period of
time.
11. Influx of infectious clients This could compromise the staffing capability of
current clients and/or new admission that could require temporary suspension of
new admissions and/or implementing abbreviated admission and documentation
procedures.
B. MITIGATING ACTIVITIES:
The following procedures are in place on an ongoing basis to minimize the impact of any
type of emergency.
1. REA office and field employees are oriented to the emergency plan at hire
including office specific plan upon hire and annually.
2. Field employees are instructed on the signs, symptoms and caregiving precautions of
diseases with bio-terrorism (i.e. anthrax, botulism, plague and small pox). This
information is included in the annual infection control in-service packet. Field employees
will be updated on potential bioterrorism and infection control annually via mailed in-
service packets that are completed by the employee and returned. The office will
maintain these in-service records in each field employee file.
3. At time of admission, the Clinical Manager reviews the emergency plan with the client.
They are informed of our on-call system and response procedures based on the priority
level assigned to them.
Priority Level 1: Clients, who need to have care, cannot be alone and have no
able caregiver in the home. This may include but is not limited to clients with
infusions, ventilators / trachs and those receiving round the clock care.
Priority Level 2: Clients whose need for service can be delayed, or are able to
care for themselves, and/or have a qualified caregiver in the home.
Priority Level 3: Clients who have good social supports, trained caregivers
and/or can be left alone until the emergency subsides.
5. A client list with assigned priority levels is kept off-site by the On-Call Manager and
easily accessed at the time of an emergency.
6. An emergency phone tree is maintained and illustrates the chain of command for the
Reading office. The Director or designee is identified at the head of the emergency
command structure and is responsible for initiating the emergency plan, establishing the
order of communication among the office employees, and communicating with the
community agencies and authorities as needed.
9. Company leaders monitor federal, state and local emergency threat levels and remain
informed of heightened alerts or threats of terrorism, or other emergencies that
could impact Bayada Home Health Care offices through the news media, public
announcements, and through consultation with appropriate agencies (i.e. CDC,
Department of Health). The Infection Control Program Coordinator, housed in
Moorestown, NJ, specifically monitors infection related threat activity alerts from the
CDC, WHO, and APIC and provides consultation to the offices that could be directly
affected by these threats. (i.e. bioterrorist attack, pandemic influenza outbreak or other
infectious disease influx).
C. PREPARATION ACTIVITIES
1. All field employees are provided with a photo ID badge at hire that is to be worn
when on assignment. It is used for identification when traveling to client homes
during emergencies when authorities have restricted travel.
3. The Director, Clinical Manager and On-Call Manager and office staff have cellular
phones and will coordinate communication with other office staff members.
4. The Bayada Home Health Care Reading Adult Office (RAD) will be used as a
back-up data center should a disaster strike the REA Office Site and prevent
access to the office. In the event that communication with RAD is compromised
then BRK will be used as the data back-up center. Contact information for the
RAD and BRK Offices are included on the emergency phone tree list. The
BEARS system is installed and available on the Office Directors laptop
computer. CSMs have BEARS on work laptops.
5. On-Call Managers have printed schedule for the week in the event that the
computer access is interrupted. The following are printed:
7. On Call Clinical Manager has a laptop with access to 485s and emergency
phone numbers.
8. The Emergency Phone Tree List includes the contact information for office staff,
fire, police and rescue (911). Emergency Management Information Systems
recommends the use of 911 for all fire, rescue and police emergency; they
discourage use of any direct calls to police stations, fire houses, etc. to report an
emergency as it may actually delay response time.
9. Employees with 4-wheel drive vehicles are identified (see emergency phone
tree.)
10. Emergency exits are clearly marked in our office and throughout out building.
11. Fire extinguishers are checked and serviced annually by the buildings landlord
and maintenance manager. Director or designee checks fire extinguishers during
annual fire drill.
D. Response Activities
Procedure for Administrative and Patient Continuity of Care:
2. The Director or designee will contact Bayada Home Health Care IS office and
Division Director. IS will communicate this information throughout the company,
including support offices, as needed.
3. If an emergency is declared after hours, the On-Call Manager will remain on-call
continuously until relief can be provided. The director will initiate the phone chain
and communicate instructions to all office employees.
5. The On-Call Manager, On Call Clinical Manager and Director will maintain
contact throughout the emergency. Client Services Managers and Clinical
Managers are expected to be available to assist in coordinating field employees
and client coverage.
6. In the event a clients home must be evacuated while a field employee is present,
the employee should:
a. Evacuate client and self to a safe location, call 911 for help, report
incident to Bayada office immediately afterwards.
b. If there is no evacuation route accessible to the employee and client, then
the employee should move the client & self to the safest and most easily
7. All field employees should report to their scheduled cases as normal unless
otherwise instructed by the office. During an emergency, field employees should
contact the office for specific instructions and possible reassignment to priority
needs clients. In the event that telephone service is interrupted all office and
field employees should listen to RADIO STATION WEEU 830AM
9. In addition to accessing fire and police, clients with emergency needs that staff
or client cannot meet, may need to be referred to hospital emergency
departments or other community resources (physician, other home health
agencies, American Red Cross, Utility Management Companies, etc. / see
Emergency Phone Tree).
10. In the case of an emergency when telephone service is interrupted, the Director
and On-Call Managers (designated persons with cellular telephones) should call
police or emergency rescue squad in the community. Private Ambulance
services may also be utilized. They must be alerted to the needs of the high-risk
clients and their situation. Should cell phone service be interrupted, back-up
modes such as fax 610-927-3948 and rea-office@bayada.com , radio / TV
broadcasts, and messenger or in-person communication can be utilized (see
Emergency Phone Tree).
11. Clients with non-life-threatening problems or questions are instructed to call the
office when telephone service is restored. In the meantime, the administrative
staff will be making every attempt to provide the service required within the
restraints present.
12. Any client receiving respiratory, oxygen, or infusion therapy will receive specific
emergency instruction from the supplier at the time of admission.
13. If a staff emergency arises, every effort will be made to replace the staff person
prior to the scheduled visit. If this is impossible, the client or the family will be
informed and the steps outlined above will be followed.
14. The following procedures will be considered when dealing with an emergency
that effects transportation (i.e. transit strike, suspension of public aggregation
due to infectious outbreak such as Pandemic Influenza). The procedure (s)
selected depend on the situation:
16. In the event of a Pandemic Influenza outbreak, influx of clients with another
infectious disease upon admission or infectious disease outbreak among current
clients, Clinical Managers and other designated office staff will:
E. Recovery Activities
1. The director or designee will remain in contact with community and office building
management to determine when the staff may return to the office. Depending on
the time of day the emergency occurs, the office staff will be instructed to report
to the office the next business day or the same day. The Director will notify
Bayada Home Health Care Headquarters, the IS Office, and the Division Director
of the plan to resume office operations.
2. Client Services Managers and Clinical Managers will contact their clients to
assess status, safety and ongoing scheduling needs.
3. Field employees with work schedules that were affected by the emergency will be
contacted and instructed to resume regularly scheduled service to their clients.
Every effort will be made to provide replacements for employees who remain
affected by the emergency.
F. Drills
1. The REA office will test their emergency management plan at least once
annually, either in response to an actual event or in a planned drill.
2. The drill will include a realistic emergency that is likely to occur based on the
office-specific list of potential emergencies and likely to effect continuation of care
and services.
2. The annual drill must include mobilization and response of staff, and a sampling
of clients and field staff.
3. A description of the drill or actual emergency and critique of the response
activities will be conducted and documented. (0-3218, Annual Emergency Plan
Drill Analysis) The critique should be conducted through a multidisciplinary
process.
Next review due: 2018