Ideas That Work: Emergency Management

In an emergency, there's no time to waste. From bad weather to bad outcomes, your staff must be prepared to respond to all sorts of emergencies — knowing what to do and whom to call when disaster strikes. But if, like us, you have as many as 20 emergency policies ranging from hazardous material spills to hurricanes, it can be difficult just locating the specific policy you need.

Our solution: We created a flip book that puts our crisis response guidelines at our staff's fingertips. Download a PDF of our 18-page flip book at outpatientsurgery.net/forms. It's easy to make. You simply cut each title page on the dotted line, layer the different-sized pages consecutively and bind at the top with a loose leaf binder ring.

A flip book hangs at each nurses' station. When, for example, the snow starts falling here in Denver, staff can flip open the orange WINTER WEATHER AND BLIZZARDS tab, which tells them what they need to do to help incoming staff as well as staff working through the inclement weather.

Lisa Fagan, MSN, MBA
Denver (Colo.) Surgery Center
[email protected]