An Emergency Plan involves identifying and assessing risks. Creating risk assessments should be the first step in emergency management.
The laboratory should identify and document all risks and hazards that should be added to the list, not just those initially considered high risk. For example, an earthquake may not be as high risk in a laboratory in Georgia compared to that in California, but it should still be identified and documented. Other examples of risks include pandemic flu, fires, earthquakes, nuclear or biological terrorist attacks, and more.
Once risks are identified, each risk is evaluated based on the impact on the assets affected by the event. To continue with our example, the risk of an earthquake in Georgia is considered low. However, flash flooding in Georgia might be considered a moderate risk.
Preparing such a risk assessment allows laboratory management to spend more resources planning for events that are most likely to occur and have the greatest impact on the laboratory's ability to provide patient care.
