8 Things to Consider When Creating an Emergency Action Plan

An A+, 10/10 Emergency Action Plan for your school would cover every potential emergency including but not limited to: active shooter, missing child, medical emergency of a participant, medical emergency of a spectator, weather related policies including heat/cold, lightning, tornado or hurricanes and more.

Those EAPs can fill a 3 ring binder. While you’re working towards the gold standard, here are 8 things you may not have considered when creating or updating your emergency action plan for the school year: 

1) The chain of command and roles of medical staff in the event of an emergency. Determine who is calling the shots.

2) The roles of non-medical staff such as coaches, referees, parents, school admins, etc. In the event of an emergency, who will unlock the gate? Who will direct the ambulance? Who will manage crowd control?

3) Gates/doors/elevators/stairways that would need to be unlocked or cleared for EMTs to get through.

4) Locations of the AEDs and additional medical equipment such as splint bags, bag valve masks and supplemental oxygen. Do you have these? Can you access them? Should you have these?

5) Weather related policies including but not limited to: heat, cold, lightning and acts of God!

6) An accurate list of contact numbers for medical staff, school admins and coaches that is distributed and posted. 

7) Copies of EAP that are facility specific presented and distributed to all staff at the start of an event, game, or season.

8) The nearest hospital, with an address and contact information should be listed. Remember that for more metropolitan areas there may be several. It is also good to add the nearest urgent care and nearest pharmacies, because not every issue will require the emergency department.

Remember, your emergency action plan is a living, breathing document. As your events, venues, and personnel change, your plan must also change! New construction on campus or a new facility director is the perfect excuse to review your EAP so that it is accurate for the event happening that day.

Did something come up that wasn’t in your EAP?  First of all, we hope everything went alright; secondly, take this opportunity to document and learn about what worked and what didn’t work. Don’t be afraid to alter your EAP if something was missing or didn’t quite work the way you thought it should have!