There may be a range of other roles and responsibilities needing to be assigned to various other practice team members, but what those roles are and who takes them on will depend on the size and set up of your practice, along with your practice’s risk environment. These extra roles and responsibilities can be identified and delegated to the appropriate people as you work your way through developing your emergency response plan.
If you are a small to medium sized practice, it is likely that your Emergency Coordinator(s) will either assume most emergency and disaster response roles and responsibilities (including some or all of those listed below) or be responsible for delegating roles to others at your practice.
Examples of other roles and responsibilities that may be relevant to your practice in an emergency include:
Fire Safety Advisor
If you are a larger practice with 30 or more team members, you may be required to have a designated Fire Safety Advisor. Fire Safety Advisors are typically responsible for:
- providing or arranging first-response evacuation instruction, and
- assisting in the development of fire evacuation coordination instructions.
While there are benefits to having an internal team member(s) embrace the role of Fire Safety Advisor(s), there is no requirement for this role to be fulfilled by someone within your team. This role can be taken on by an external person or organisation.
To find out more, contact your local fire safety advisor consultancy or fire response service.
Floor Warden
If you have a larger practice that occupies more than one floor of a building, consider appointing at least one team member per floor the role of Floor Warden.
The Floor Warden is responsible for actioning any relevant emergency responses and management procedures (i.e., sounding alarms, helping team members, patients and other visitors to evacuate, searching for anyone on their floor who may not have been alerted).
Communications Officer
The Communications Officer’s role is important, as it requires great care to ensure that correct, detailed information is being received (e.g., incoming fire path information from local authorities or updates from an IT professional following a cyberattack) and relayed to the broader practice team as well as any other relevant contacts in a timely manner.
Communications Officers are typically responsible for:
- determining or confirming the emergency’s nature to ensure that correct information is provided to relevant authorities and the occupants of the building (noting that the Communications Officer should understand the Australian Warning System,
- sharing messages in a pre-established method and format from the Emergency Coordinator as instructed (noting that a pre-planned backup method should be used if the preferred communication method is not functional),
- maintaining communication between themselves and the Emergency Coordinator and Floor Warden(s) where possible,
- displaying helpful information posters in your practice,
- updating patients with the latest relevant information via your practice’s phone message, social media account, website and other communication channels,
- ensuring all practice team members know how to use available communication equipment,
- maintaining records and logs of emergency responses, and
- keeping your practice’s emergency contact list details up to date.
First Aid Officer
Under WHS/OH&S laws, all workplaces must have one or multiple trained First Aid Officer(s) depending on laws in your jurisdiction and based on the number of people in the workplace.
First Aid Officers are responsible for providing primary care to anyone suffering from injuries prior to the availability or arrival of the appropriate healthcare professional. Your First Aid Officer will need to undergo training to enable them to provide suitable care.
It is also the First Aid Officer’s duty to ensure your Emergency First Aid Kit is up to date with its content.
Create a culture of being prepared
Assigning responsibilities to each team member will help to create a culture of preparedness. So will practicing drills in formal and informal ways, regularly.
The more often you casually discuss and consider emergency and disaster preparedness with your team, the more confident they will be in a real emergency event. Involve all team members in these conversations.
Ensure any new team members are made aware of and provided training on your emergency response plan.
Regularly assess the level of involvement that individuals are prepared to contribute during an emergency. It is best to know this information prior to an event taking place.
Take action
- Facilitate a team discussion to communicate and discuss the types of emergency roles that need to be assigned to team members. Use the information within this resource to guide your conversations.
- ogether, assign team members with official emergency roles and responsibilities. Create a simple document outlining this information (see example below).
- As you continue to develop your emergency plan, you may wish to add or edit team member roles. Ensure the practice team is aware of any updates or changes made.
Example document:
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Emergency response role:
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Assigned to:
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Role description:
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When testing our emergency response plan, the [insert job title] is expected to:
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What clinical and business information does this team member have access to:
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Should this assigned team member become unavailable, the following person(s) will undertake this role:
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