In my prior career as an auditor and department director I reviewed hundreds of clinical group and facility policy manuals. Many were great, some less so. The difference was often an understanding of why a clinical group needs policies – other than the basic employee manual – in the first place.
As a group manager, the worst time to sort out how to respond to an emergency is when you’re in the middle of it. Think back to March and April of 2020 and how smoothly the transition went from all in office to telehealth. Believe it or not, some groups had a written plan for just this sort of “pandemic response” that we all faced.
I remember conducting an audit about a decade ago of a residential treatment center. As I reviewed their policies, I was surprised by this incredible Disaster Plan.
A Disaster Plan, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is an operational plan that establishes how a group or facility would respond to maintain continuity of care of their patients/clients in the event of a disaster. In the case of this residential center, it described in detail how they would find emergency accommodations for residents and find alternative placements longer term. It had detailed descriptions of all the communications with the clinical staff and patient families so that it was clear what had occurred and how things were being handled. And all of that would be initiated immediately in order to be ahead of any other news.
After completing my audit, I spoke with the facility’s CEO and clinical director in the exit interview. I commented on how extraordinary their Disaster Plan was. They said thank you, but that it was a lesson hard learned. The building we were in was brand new. The previous building had burned to the ground. No one was injured, but they had no plan of how to respond to the event and so struggled to do any of the things that were now in the plan. They hoped they would never have to use it but felt like they were at least now prepared for it.
Your operational plans give you some direction of how to respond when things happen, so you’re prepared for them. It also provides your staff with clear guidelines of how they should respond to situations as well.
So, if you still see clients in an office and your operational manual doesn't include a Safety and Security, Sentinel Events, Disaster Plan, Infectious Disease Control, or Fire Safety Plan (to list a few) spend the time to begin working with your senior staff to start to build them out -- hoping you’ll never use them, but ready when something that challenges you does.
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