Ready-made kits will assist incident command activities

Preparing incident command kits is one way to strengthen your hospital's emergency management efforts.

The development of such kits "is probably one of the best things we did in our organization in the past six months," said Mel Stibal, administrative director of trauma services at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FL.

The kits can include the following:

• Scenario specific procedures and checklists
• Important contact numbers for incident commanders
• Incident management team charts
• Recommended role activations based on the length of the emergency, using job action sheets such as those outlined in the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS)
• Other associated HICS forms

Incident command kits can also help you comply with required hospital activities under the National Incident Management System (NIMS), Stibal said. For example, NIMS hospital implementation element #2 requires medical facilities to use incident command systems that can ebb and flow with the scale of a disaster.

Stibal spoke during HCPro's audioconference, "Emergency planning: How to best implement NIMS and HICS at your hospital." To order a CD of the show, click here.