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What are the staff member's responsibilities in an evacuation?

Every practice should have a fire prevention and emergency response plan; As a matter of fact, OSHA requires every business to have one. If the business has less than 10 employees, OSHA allows the plan to be verbal instead of written. However, it’s always a good idea to take the time to write out these plans to avoid confusion and misunderstanding.

In a simplistic fire plan, there would be an evacuation diagram, the method that an employee would alert others to the emergency and the designation of an assembly area for accountability. Any additional duties the staff must perform brings additional training and protective equipment requirements. Some staff members have a hard time with a plan that does not include evacuation of the animals in the hospital. In response, practices have developed variations of the “techs evacuate animals, receptionists evacuate clients” principle. This is not a wise move.

First, any time a person is assigned duties in an emergency situation, the business must provide adequate training and equipment for that person to do the job safely. Since emergencies (like fires) by their nature are not normal operations, the veterinary hospital staff can not possible train enough to be competent in any emergency evacuation situation that may occur. 

Likewise, by assigning the staff duties to perform in the event of an emergency or evacuation, the hospital must meet the provisions of OSHA’s Fire Brigade Standard. This includes, among other things, fire-proof clothing and air-supplied respirators for each person and conducting proficiency drills at regular intervals to determine whether people are competent to react in different situations. 

In a profession that is as caring and compassionate as ours, the idea of leaving animals inside during an evacuation is pill to swallow. Unfortunately, the reality is that the veterinary staff can not possible train or equip themselves to perform this function. Sometimes we in the veterinary profession have to accept that we are only human and we are not able to perform every task that we want, even without the training. Sometimes it's better not to be "just good enough." 

Furthermore, one of the worst scenarios to happen is for the staff member to become trapped or incapacitated in the facility. Then the trained professionals would be forced to abandon attempts to rescue animals until al the human occupants are accounted for. Given the chance, most emergency rescue personnel would do everything possible to save pets from a disaster like a fire, but when a would-be rescuer now becomes the victim it just makes matters worse. 

Even if the plan simply allows the staff to take rescue actions on their own initiative and not as part of their official duties, the business may still be held accountable both from a regulatory standpoint and from a civil standpoint. When it comes to preparing for emergencies, the best advice is to leave the rescue duties to the professionals.

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The information on these pages is excerpted from
The Veterinary Safety & Health Digest,
Copyright 2003 Philip J. Seibert, Jr., CVT  All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced for distribution without prior permission from the publisher.