Planning for Toxic Incidents

Chemical incident planning should be integrated into standard hospital disaster plans and should have the direct involvement of emergency medical staff who will be expected to receive casualties with toxic trauma. 

Prevention This section of the plan allows for improved incident documentation to identify and provide strategies to reduce incidents. It should also include hazard control, surveillance and identification of incidents, and the development of strategies to reduce hazards, along with education. 

Preparedness Plans for chemical incidents should include active preparation in a number of areas, e.g. patient decontamination. Health and safety issues of responders and personal protective clothing provision should be considered and 

Response Within the plans should be included documentation needed during the response, including incident logs, checklists and material related to specific sampling, public safety and clean-up measures. 

Recovery This deals with reviewing the incident and auditing the response, legal proceedings and feedback on processes (lessons learned). It can be invaluable in determining any risk to the responders and in improving plans for the future. Clinicians should be directly involved with this process to provide information about the effectiveness of the hospital response and identify potential weak points. 

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