Emergency Response and Management

Emergency response and business continuity (BC) planning is an essential component of the research organization’s program. A well-developed plan ensures the humane care and treatment of laboratory animals in a crisis situation. Animal facility management must contemplate the following questions: If our facility is faced with a crisis”“natural or man-made”“are we prepared? Are the local authorities aware of specialized facility needs? Does our response plan integrate with that of city, county, and state emergency plans? Are our essential personnel equipped to respond? Can we recover after the disaster? Taking responsibility for preparedness and response is vital to reduce potential damage and hasten recovery from any adverse event, large or small. Following a disaster, business resumption is the priority of the institution. The goal of comprehensive crisis planning is to create resiliency within an organization and increase the chance of a successful outcome when a disaster or emergency occurs. Although there are distinctions between crisis, emergency, and disaster, for the purposes of this chapter, planning for any of the above comes under the heading . This chapter uses the definition of as provided by the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) (2016). Out of many, varied definitions, it most succinctly encompasses what the authors felt a crisis management plan should consider. The CCAC defines a crisis as “any unplanned event which triggers a real, perceived, or possible threat to the health and safety of animals or personnel or to the Institution’s credibility” (Canadian Council on Animal Care 2016). To delineate differences between an emergency and a disaster, it is helpful to consider the scope of response required for the event. A disaster is considered a calamitous event that requires a response beyond that available locally, such as state or federal assistance (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). An emergency can be resolved with local resources. For example, an emergency is when a water supply line bursts, flooding one or more animal rooms, but cleanup and repair take place in a reasonably short period of time. This situation requires an immediate response, but it usually does not result in business disruption or relocation of staff. While a broken water line might be an emergent situation handled at the room or building level, a broken dam upstream from a town would be a disaster, as flood waters take out utilities, businesses, and homes. Because the scope of a disaster can be sizable, planning for crisis management and BC becomes more important. Many administrators lump crisis planning and BC planning into one document. Although this is a practical solution, a distinction should be made between these two entities. Mortell and Nicholls (2013) describe crisis preparedness as the actions needed “to mitigate the impact of threats that can reasonably be predicted.” Predicting the impact of these threats comes from appropriate crisis preparedness, as described later in this chapter. They further define BC planning as “the actions taken by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be sustained in the event of a disaster.” It may be easiest to consider the crisis response and recovery plan as actions taken at the time of the adverse event, as compared with the longer-term goals of a BC plan. BC planning expands on the crisis management recovery phase goals to ensure that business continues through the crisis and onward with minimal interruption. BC planning is discussed in further detail at the end of this chapter. Regardless of whether an institute specifically delineates these terms, the planning for both has significant overlap, and appropriately created plans will account for all details discussed in Chapter 18. As described in the , the global biomedical research and development (R&D) expenditures in 2012 alone were $268.4 billion (Chakma et al. 2014). Emergency and BC planning will mitigate the escalating costs of recovery. Laboratory animal professionals have a moral and fiscal responsibility to protect the staff, animals, and research efforts at their respective organizations. Directors, veterinarians, facility managers, supervisors, and researchers are vital in creating a culture of preparedness within the animal facility. The goal of this chapter is to assist managers, veterinarians, supervisors, or other personnel in mitigating these crises with a well-thought-out plan and a well-prepared team. This chapter examines the concepts of risk assessment, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, and BC. A crisis is not the time to develop a plan; it is the time to execute a carefully constructed and plan. It is not a question of if; it is a matter of when! When disaster comes knocking, will the institution be ready?