With emergency inventory planning, don’t just focus on the numbers
Maintaining an accurate inventory of resources and assets for disaster planning is clearly an important process because you need to know what your capacities are during emergencies.
What this requires is a thoughtful process for managing the inventory during an emergency. It’s not so much about knowing that we have 952,000 bottles of water, oh wait, now it’s 951,999, no 951,998.
Rather, it’s knowing when you’re approaching tipping points with resources and having enough time to tip back or tip off.
You can and must do all the pre-event analysis that you can through drilling, etc., but you can never know for sure what will happen during a “real” emergency until it (whatever it might be) happens.
We’ve got a couple of good sessions on emergency management at the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium May 13-14 in Las Vegas. Hope to see you out there in the desert.
About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Greeley Company in Danvers, Mass. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is contributing editor for Briefings on Hospital Safety. Contact Steve at 
Carlton Bloodworth | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
I have recently retired from Central State Hospital and want to thank you for all the years you have been such a reliable source of safety and Joint Commission information. I am currently working with my replacement, and he has inherited our laundry operation. I know that a hospital laundry should maintain a minimum 5-day par level. Question: Is there a requirement to maintain an additional three day inventory for emergency preparednes?
Thank you,
Carlton