Emergency Planning From You to The President

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Emergency Planning From You to The President

Just as individual families need an emergency plan to evacuate their home, meet to ensure all are safe, communicate their current location, and determine how to get money and the supplies needed to live, the laboratory needs a plan to continue to operate and provide patient care in the event of an emergency.
Emergency planning begins with the individuals in the laboratory. It progresses to the building, the institution, the city or township, the region within the state, the state, the national region, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and finally to the President of the United States. The first image illustrates the many layers of organizations involved in emergency management. Communication is a critical part of emergency planning, because an important aspect of emergency management is that each entity must ask for assistance before the next agency in the organizational structure will intervene.
Both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have roles in disaster management. DHS is responsible for coordinating a comprehensive federal response and a swift and effective recovery. DHS assumes primary responsibility for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation.
FEMA's role is to support citizens and first responders to ensure that, as a nation, we work to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate hazards. FEMA has resources to assist in emergency planning for natural disasters.
The role of HHS is to protect the health of all Americans. With HHS, both the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Office of Preparedness and Emergency Operations (OPEO) maintain planning and response coordination capabilities. OPEO is the operational arm for the National Disaster Medical System.
In addition, HHS may call on the assistance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).