Interested in attending the live webinars? Register for the live webinar series, Mastering Emergency Management: Basics and Beyond and receive automatic access to the recorded webinars as they become available.

Health centers play a significant role in their communities by providing access to health care for those who need it most. When communities experience emergencies and disasters, providing access to care becomes even more important. Putting an effective emergency management (EM) program in place, which has been required for federally qualified health centers since 2016, can make or break an organization’s ability to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

Mastering Emergency Management: Basics and Beyond is a comprehensive, twelve-part webinar series where you will learn the essential concepts and skills necessary to set up and maintain an effective EM program for your organization. During the series, we will methodically explore required and suggested program components, industry concepts and best practices, as well as challenges and opportunities to make your EM program successful and easy to manage.

Please note: This webinar series is offered as a complimentary product to all Health Center Compliance Premium Plan Subscribers. For more information on our Premium Plan, click here or contact us.

The webinar series consists of 12 60-minute sessions:

Webinar 1: Understanding the Basics - Available on-demand
Building Blocks of an Emergency Management Program

• In the inaugural session, you will learn the key concepts, requirements, and best practice elements for establishing a comprehensive emergency management program at a community health center.

Webinar 2: From Chaos to Control - Available on-demand
Establishing an Effective Emergency Management Team

• In the second session in the series, we will review key concepts and related considerations for defining the structure and functions of a health center’s EM team.

Webinar 3: Risk Assessment - Available on-demand
Identifying Hazards: The Key to Effective Emergency Management

• From this training, you will understand how risk assessment informs a health center’s comprehensive emergency management program, as well as learn how to conduct a hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) correctly.

Webinar 4: Emergency Operations Plan
Understanding Essential Elements of a Plan That Works

• In this session, you will learn how to develop an emergency operations plan document for your organization. You will also learn the essential elements of a plan that works, and how to organize it.

Webinar 5: Communications Plan
Enabling Effective Communication During Emergencies

• During this webinar, you will learn how to develop a communications plan document for your organization. We will also discuss how to enable effective communication during emergencies, such as identifying and engaging stakeholders, choosing and using communication channels and tools, and delivering clear and consistent messages.

Webinar 6: Business Continuity Plan
Continuing Operations After a Disaster

• In this session, you will learn how to organize and develop a business continuity plan for your organization.

Webinar 7: Annexes: Why Are These Important?
Dealing with the Hazards that Matter

• Throughout this webinar, we will discuss how to determine and develop emergency operations plan annexes that detail specific response functions or responses to hazards with the greatest potential negative impact to your health center’s staff, patients, and surrounding community.

Webinar 8: Staff Training: Organizational Best Asset
Preparing and Supporting Staff

• In this training, we will look at why health centers must prepare their staff and support them during response and recovery, as well as describe strategies for designing and delivering staff training for your emergency management program.

Webinar 9: Preparedness Exercises
Testing Plans Through Effective Exercises

• In this session, you will learn how to conduct preparedness exercises for your emergency management program. We will discuss the importance of exercising plans and discuss tactics for making exercises successful.

Webinar 10: Improvement Planning
Making Plans Better

• You will learn about the importance of improvement planning as part of a continuous cycle of preparedness during this webinar. Additionally, we will look at how to improve plans by using data from exercises and incidents, as well as introduce best practices.

Webinar 11: Integrated Healthcare Systems
Improving Program Coordination and Compliance

• Throughout this training, we will look at the optional element within the CMS emergency preparedness rule, i.e., Integrated Healthcare Systems (42 CFR 491.12(e)). We will review the element with its components and will explore how health centers with multiple locations may use it to improve program coordination and compliance.

Webinar 12: Emergency Management – Challenges and Opportunities
Adapting to the Changing Landscape and Expectations

• In the final session of the series, we will review the main concepts covered to date. We will also explore current challenges and opportunities in health center emergency management, such as emerging trends, technologies, standards, regulations, and best practices.