CM/Spotlight: Safety Emergency Action Plans: By: Donald White Solution Preparation in the event of an emergency can be the difference between hysteria and helpfulness. A Winning You have workers in your build-ing, spread across your campus and travelling between sites. Wherever and whenever, all of your workers need to know how to handle sudden emergencies — quickly and correctly. Far too often, afterhours, weekend, offsite and contract workers get injured or seriously ill, suddenly abandoning duty posts as they “wing it” through ambulance trips and hospital emergency rooms. The consequence is incurring costly liability to unaware managers. The answer is your emergency action plan (EAP). in today’s diverse workforces. Your staff may speak many foreign languages, and some supervisors are stone-faced and not motivated enough to address language barriers. Some operations experience excessive turnover rates exac-erbating the communication issue. Many work on tight project deadlines, both hourly and daily, making emer-gency preparedness an afterthought. Donald White is the director of safety and security for the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute. A 19-year vet-eran, White is a board-certified health care safety professional (CHSP), hazard control manager (CHCM), health care emergency professional (CHEP), NFPA Fire Instructor-III, Virginia Emergency Medical Technician (EMT/B) and American Red Cross Disaster Instructor. White has perfected his craft at airports, hotels, hospitals, jails, fire sta-tions, command centers, apart-ment complexes and office build-ings during the past 39 years. He can be reached at Donald.White@ DBHDS.Virginia.gov. Y What Governs Your Workers? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has many overlapping standards that oftentimes confuse managers. For emergency action planning, five OSHA standards usually govern your workers: 1. Emergency Action Plan (1910.38) 2. Fire Prevention Plan (1910.39) 3. First Aid (1910.151) 4. Employee Alarm System (1910.165) 5. Hazard Communication (1910.1200). A classic example of emergency action plan-ning is elementary school fire drills. for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Emergency Plan . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select SUPPLIER SEARCH from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Safety . Inspector Radar Business preparedness is now a looming sight on the “radar” of federal, state and local inspectors, especially after the devastating Midwest floods, Southwestern wildfires and, now, year-round ter-rorism. As a result, businesses large and small need something short and sweet that their workers can quickly grasp and easily understand — especially 28 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • November 2011
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