Preparedness & Planning
Planning completed before an emergency to reduce harm and improve the response is called this.
What is emergency preparation?
This standardized structure establishes leadership, responsibilities, and communication during an emergency.
What is the Incident Command System?
This 24-hour service provides the public and healthcare professionals with guidance about suspected poison exposures.
What is Poison Control?
Providing accurate, understandable information about a hazard and the actions people should take demonstrates this activity.
What is risk communication?
Keeping an updated list of emergency contacts, local resources, and referral services demonstrates this pharmacist activity.
What is risk communication?
A disaster plan designed to address natural disasters, infectious threats, poisonings, and other emergencies uses this broad approach.
What is an all-hazards approach?
Knowing who is responsible for decisions and to whom each team member reports establishes this important part of emergency organization.
What is the chain of command?
Pharmacies should establish relationships with this local agency before an emergency to coordinate community preparedness and response.
What is the local public-health department?
Using familiar words, short sentences, and specific instructions during an emergency demonstrates this communication technique.
What is plain language?
Recording assessments, actions, referrals, and information provided during an emergency demonstrates this professional responsibility.
What is documentation?
A pharmacy identifies essential services, backup records, alternate locations, and staffing needs so operations can continue during a disaster.
What is continuity-of-operations planning?
Gathering current information about hazards, available resources, affected populations, and changing needs creates this shared understanding.
What is situational awareness?
This organized group of trained community volunteers, including pharmacists, may assist during public-health emergencies.
What is the Medical Reserve Corps?
Pharmacists can reduce panic and unsafe actions by correcting false or misleading emergency information, also known by this term.
What is misinformation?
Connecting an exposed patient with Poison Control, emergency services, or another appropriate agency demonstrates this pharmacist action.
What is referral?
Multiple agencies working through an agreed leadership structure during a large emergency demonstrate this approach.
What is a unified response?
Practicing an emergency plan through a simulated event allows an organization to identify weaknesses before a real disaster.
What is an emergency exercise or drill? .
A pharmacy may serve as this organized location where emergency supplies are distributed rapidly to the public.
What is a point of dispensing, or POD?
Reaching people who have disabilities, limited English proficiency, transportation barriers, or limited technology access demonstrates this public-health principle.
What is equitable emergency communication?
Recognizing an unusual pattern of illness, exposure, or requests and reporting it to the proper agency supports this public-health function.
What is surveillance?
Restoring pharmacy operations, reconnecting patients with services, and addressing continuing community needs represent this phase of disaster management.
What is recovery?
Following an emergency or drill, the team evaluates what worked, identifies gaps, and develops corrective actions through this process.
What is an after-action review and improvement plan?
A written agreement developed before an emergency defines how pharmacies and public-health agencies will work together.
What is a memorandum of understanding, or MOU?
Acknowledging uncertainty, explaining what is known, and updating the public as information changes helps maintain this essential community relationship.
What is public trust?
Working with public health, emergency management, healthcare organizations, and community agencies before, during, and after a disaster demonstrates this pharmacist function.
What is interprofessional emergency coordination?