Clause 4.4.7 - Emergency Preparedness and Response

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Hullo all,

When I had a look at Emergency preparedness and responce in an audit I realized that we need to beef up our procedure.

It's obvious to me that we should improve our post emergency evaluation. Any accident or incident should be reviewed in order to improve procedures and future responses, and I don't think we're getting the full potential from that data.

So, naturally I turn to the Cove for ideas and suggestions...
How do you do it?

/Claes

[Dean P.]

Hi Claes,

We just have a simple form that goes through the response (whether it was a drill or real) to see how effective our actions were. Through discussions with all supervisors involved, we then decide and document if the response was adequate / succesfull, or if a corrective action was required. For example, if everyone got out of the building during an evacuation drill, this is documented and filed. If there was a door that was stuck, or certain people were unable to hear the alarm, etc., then our Corrective Action system gets involved, to investigate root cause, corrective and preventive actions, etc.

Not that I am a big supporter of forms, but I believe that a simple form will suffice for this application.

[Randy]

Just review it like you would any other project.

Look at the good things and the bad.

Perform C+P actions and improve where necessary.

Make sure folks are trained applicable to their responsibilities and crossed trained to take up the slack in the event somebody is absent ( Crosstraining is very important. Normally organizations only train 1 or 2 people to perform a task with no back up in place or available. The military tries to guarantee success by cross training folks in the event that people may not be able to perform their assigned duties)

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Thank's for the input. Good points.

I think I'll set up a checklist together with our H&S engineer. (We're both great believers in checklists - Both of us are former pilots).

/Claes

[Randy]

Too bad about the lack of skills and abilities Claes or you could have been a crewchief and mechanic

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Randy said:

Too bad about the lack of skills and abilities Claes or you could have been a crewchief and mechanic

Hi Randy,

No worries... None of us had the right stuff for military flying. Meaning: We both held private pilot licences, and had no mechanics to look after us. So... At least in my case, I spent more hours working on the planes than flying them.. A lot more in fact.

/Claes

[Randy]

I actually caught one of our illustrious pilots "tightening" things up oneday prior to flight. I subsequently grounded the bird, causing us to miss a mission, and got his knickers ripped to shreds. The "Boss" put the word out...."unless pilots wanted to become Grunts real quick, they'de better never even be caught with a screwdriver within a lightyear of a helicopter!!"

The poor hapless Lieutenant was definitely humbled