Emergency Preparedness Update

Emergency Preparedness Update

Administrative EyeCare Jan/Feb 2019

By: Crissy Benze, MSN, BSN, RN

Blizzards, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes have killed thousands, cost billions of dollars, and stressed local healthcare systems, emergency responders, and utilities in recent years. In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a new Emergency Preparedness (EP) rule to establish national emergency preparedness requirements to ensure adequate planning for both natural and man-made disasters and coordination with federal, state, tribal, regional, and local emergency preparedness systems (CMS, 2018).