Is Your Lab Ready?

With the end of National Preparedness Month arriving shortly, there is no better time to focus on implementing a disaster plan for your lab, or updating your lab’s current disaster plan. With the theme of “Disasters Don’t Plan Ahead. You Can,” the US government has provided a free toolkit with useful items for reuse on social media platforms, including hashtags, graphics, videos, and other helpful related links.

CLSI’s GP36, Planning for Laboratory Operations During a Disaster, 1st Edition, focuses on the unique challenges that health care organizations and laboratories are often confronted with in the face of a natural or other disaster. This essential document provides guidance for the lab for development, implementation, and sustainment of effective emergency preparedness plans. Emerging public health threats, disasters, as well as unexpected system failures are discussed. GP36 provides examples of checklists, forms, and questionnaires the lab can use for effective disaster preparation. 

GP36 also contains advice from Francis R. Rodwig, Jr., MD, of the Ochsner Health System in Louisiana, which suffered, but remained open during after Hurricane Katrina. He discusses the problems Ochsner experienced and the resulting improvements in their emergency preparedness plans.

Plan ahead so your lab can continue to safely operate and provide the high quality results your customers expect.