CHSP Emergency Preparedness & Incident Management 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which federal law requires hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to maintain an emergency preparedness program compliant with CMS regulations?
- HIPAA
- EMTALA
- 42 CFR Part 482 (Correct answer)
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.38
Correct answer: 42 CFR Part 482
42 CFR Part 482 (CMS Conditions of Participation) mandates that Medicare/Medicaid-participating hospitals develop and maintain a compliant emergency preparedness program.
Question 2: A hospital's crisis standards of care (CSC) are activated when:
- Any one department experiences a staffing shortage
- Demand for services substantially exceeds available resources despite surge efforts (Correct answer)
- The CEO declares a financial emergency
- A single piece of critical equipment fails
Correct answer: Demand for services substantially exceeds available resources despite surge efforts
Crisis standards of care are triggered when a catastrophic event causes demand to so far exceed available resources that conventional and contingency measures are exhausted.
Question 3: The Emergency Support Function (ESF) #8 in the National Response Framework (NRF) specifically addresses:
- Transportation logistics
- Public Health and Medical Services (Correct answer)
- Energy restoration
- Search and Rescue
Correct answer: Public Health and Medical Services
ESF #8 coordinates federal public health and medical services support, including medical surge, fatality management, and behavioral health services.
Question 4: During a prolonged power outage, a hospital's generator fails. The safety officer should FIRST consult which document to guide the response?
- The hospital's business continuity plan (BCP)
- The facility's downtime procedures and utility failure annex of the EOP (Correct answer)
- OSHA 1910.303 electrical standards
- The vendor's generator maintenance manual
Correct answer: The facility's downtime procedures and utility failure annex of the EOP
The utility failure annex of the EOP and associated downtime procedures contain pre-planned actions, communication trees, and escalation steps specific to utility failures.
Question 5: A hospital is conducting a functional exercise. Which element distinguishes a functional exercise from a tabletop exercise?
- A functional exercise involves actual mobilization of resources and personnel in a realistic environment (Correct answer)
- A functional exercise is limited to discussion with no activation
- A functional exercise requires an actual emergency to occur
- A functional exercise is conducted only at the federal level
Correct answer: A functional exercise involves actual mobilization of resources and personnel in a realistic environment
Functional exercises activate EOC staff and test actual coordination, communication, and decision-making processes without full field deployment, unlike a tabletop which is discussion-only.
Question 6: Which organization publishes the Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) tool most widely used by US healthcare facilities to prioritize emergency planning?
- FEMA
- Kaiser Permanente / California Emergency Medical Services Authority (Correct answer)
- The Joint Commission
- OSHA
Correct answer: Kaiser Permanente / California Emergency Medical Services Authority
The Kaiser Permanente HVA tool, adapted by the California EMS Authority, is the most widely adopted framework for healthcare facilities to score and prioritize hazard risks.
Question 7: Under HICS, the Planning Section Chief is responsible for which key function during an emergency?
- Procuring supplies and managing vendor contracts
- Collecting, evaluating, and disseminating incident information and maintaining the Incident Action Plan (Correct answer)
- Directing patient care operations in the emergency department
- Managing financial tracking and cost documentation
Correct answer: Collecting, evaluating, and disseminating incident information and maintaining the Incident Action Plan
The Planning Section Chief oversees situation status, resource tracking, documentation, and development of the Incident Action Plan (IAP) to guide the response.
CHSP Emergency Preparedness & Incident Management 5
Which federal law requires hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to maintain an emergency preparedness program compliant with CMS regulations?