In the past, disaster plans were the most effective methods to prepare for and respond to emergency events. Prior emergency events frequently created mass casualty situations in which resources were challenged by the large number of casualties over a relatively short time period.
However, more recent emergency events have caused disaster plans to be less effective. Recent events have led to compromised patient care by (a) the inability of healthcare facilities to provide necessary medical services, (b) the failure of critical utility services (e.g., electricity and water), (c) the loss of computer systems (e.g., hostage, malware, fire, etc.), and (d) the inability to obtain supplies to operate (e.g., manufacturer's backorders or FDA-ordered shutdowns).
Due to these more extreme and urgent events, agencies have shifted from disaster planning to emergency management, which outlines the entire process of how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from all at-risk emergency events. The new term for emergency planning is a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).
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