Practicing and maintaining your emergency response plan

Module 1 – Prevention and preparedness | Practicing and maintaining your emergency response plan

Team member training

Once your emergency response plan has been developed, the whole practice team can be provided with education and training.

Your team should be made aware of:

• the contents of the plan,
• what role they will play in an emergency or disaster situation, and
• where and how to access the plan.

Remember to include any new team members in these education and training sessions.

Updating your plan

Your emergency response plan should be viewed as a fluid document. It will need to be and revised and updated to:

• reflect any general changes in your emergency management processes,
• ensure all external contact information remains correct, relevant and up to date,
• incorporate learning from past events.

Your plan should also be updated to reflect team member changes (i.e., departures, promotions, changes in roles), where relevant.

Testing your plan

Testing your emergency response plan, or at least components of your plan, is an important part of the emergency planning process. Exercising your plan will help you in assessing the plan’s functionality and reinforce appropriate actions to take in an emergency.