Management Plans in Business Occupancies

Q. Are we expected to have as detailed a management plan for each area in the environment of care for our business occupancies as we do for our hospital?

A. While plans are required to cover each of the Environment of Care (EC) and Emergency Management (EM) chapters, the content of the organization's EC & EM plans and policies for those plans that address business occupancies should be designed to meet the needs of your organization. These will vary based on the nature and complexity of operations. Some standards may not apply to the business occupancy location at all, and this needs to be noted.

For example, the scope and complexity of a business occupancy’s Emergency Management Plans will be far less extensive than a hospital’s plan. For most emergencies, plans will involve only the steps necessary for an orderly shutdown of the clinic or office. At a minimum, the plan should include notification of all scheduled patients/residents/clients, provision of an alternate care site, transfer of patient/resident/client records, transportation if necessary, etc. Business occupancies must also have plans to deal with the few emergencies, for example, tornadoes, earthquakes, where immediate action will be necessary to protect occupants per their unique Hazardous Vulnerability Analysis.

The point of these examples is to emphasize the Joint Commission's objective to assure all applicable standards are met. The intent is not to require volumes of paperwork, but to assure reasonable programs are in place and designed to the needs of the organization.