Hospitals Must Implement National Incident Management Systems by September 30, 2008

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Each hospital and health care system that receives federal emergency preparedness and response grants (e.g. Hospital Bioterrorism Preparedness Program or Department of Homeland Security grants) must fully implement the National Incident Management System by September 30, 2008. The federal government recently released guidelines for hospitals to comply with NIMS.

NIMS Background

NIMS provides a nationwide approach to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from mass casualty incidents. Hospitals and health care systems receiving federal preparedness and response grants should have implemented the following NIMS elements by September 30, 2007:

  • Revise and update emergency plans to include NIMS planning, training, response, exercises, equipment, evaluation and corrective actions,
  • Complete IS-700: NIMS: An Introduction,
  • Complete IS-800.A: NRP: An Introduction and
  • Complete ICS 100 and ICS 200 training courses (or their equivalent).

Full NIMS Compliance in 2008

The recently released federal guidance will help hospitals and health care systems implement the remaining NIMS elements by September 30, 2008. Hospitals and health systems must certify that they meet all of the NIMS elements in order to continue to receive federal preparedness funds after that date.

If you have any questions about complying with NIMS, or would like to discuss any other issues relating to hospital emergency preparedness, please contact Jeff Clark of Reinhart's Crisis Management and Business Continuity team.