About Us
Emergency Operations Overview
Decision Makers
Triage Officers
Severity level escalation decisions are made by any of the Triage Officers listed below:
- Vice President for Operations and Facilities
- Executive Vice President and Physician-In-Chief
- Senior Vice President and Chief of Clinical Operations
- Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
Incident Officer
Once the institution is at a Severity Level 3 or above, the Incident Officer makes all institutional decisions.
Emergency Plan Officers
To find the Emergency Plan Officer for your area, read your Departmental Emergency Management Plan or ask your supervisor.
Significant Changes in Operations
Employee Release
In the rare event that a situation on campus warrants an employee release, employees will receive the message through:
- Emergency Plan Officers (EPOs) or from their department managers or supervisors
- ANNOUNCEMENT, SECURITY ALERT or WEATHER ALERT e-mail messages
- MDA-TV Channel 20, Your News @ Work.
Issues specific to an area or individual should be addressed by department managers or supervisors.
Evacuations
M. D. Anderson’s main campus defends-in-place instead of evacuating. Typically, the hospital will not be evacuated during a hurricane. Any decision to evacuate the hospital will be made by the Incident Command Officers.
Operational Status Indicators
Emergencies at M. D. Anderson are triaged based on the severity of an event and its affect on patient care. For more information on the institution’s emergency operations, employees may read the incident-specific plans available on the Institutional Policies Intranet site.
Institutional severity levels differ from the severity levels of the City of Houston, Harris County and other hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, as well as from the Homeland Security national threat levels. M. D. Anderson makes decisions based on the health and safety of our employees, patients and visitors. The Incident Command Officers monitor all government severity levels and decisions when evaluating our status.
Actions that occur at each severity level are summarized on the Employee Alert Web site.
Special Circumstances: Hurricanes
Severity Level 1
Hurricane enters Gulf of Mexico
Severity Level 2
Hurricane 36-48 hours out
Hurricane Ride-Out Team may be released to secure personal property
Severity Level 3
Hurricane 24 hours out
Hurricane Ride-Out Team may be released to secure personal property, if not released at Level 2
Essential personnel are released when the Hurricane Ride-Out Team has taken over operations
Severity Level 4
Hurricane makes landfall in Houston/Galveston area
Essential personnel are released — only during a hurricane — once Hurricane Ride-Out Team members have taken over operations of the institution
Recovery
The Incident Officer declares when it is safe for the institution to begin recovery mode. All Recovery Team members should report to their managers or sub-command centers with their own food and water and wearing comfortable clothing.
Note
Institutional escalation to Severity Levels 2 and 3 could change if the City of Houston mandates early evacuation. The institution could move to a Level 2 and Level 3 earlier than 36-48 hours out if mandatory evacuations seem probable. In that event, decisions by the Triage Officer for level escalation will be dictated by decisions from the mayor.