UT Southwestern Medical Center is a strong promoter of maintaining a business continuity program that will facilitate and coordinate a successful recovery or response should an adverse situation such as a natural disaster, terrorism attack, and or a pandemic occur.  Plans and developments are under way so that management may assume a more confident position in this and so that UT Southwestern, as a whole, will be better prepared and able to sustain a successful response and recovery in the event of a disaster. 

The Generic Business Plan is meant to be a used as a working on-going plan.  It will require mandatory updating, training, and frequent revisiting by department or area management. This plan is going to be introduced to all departments.  Since all departments or areas of the Medical Center are somewhat unique, certain sections of the plan will be customized to the respective area and other sections will be generic. The links below are sections that may be used the most and require management input and interaction.  The other documented sections are just as important for you to read, understand, and distribute appropriately but do not require any other effort.  A hard copy of the plan should be maintained within the department area and management should also maintain another copy at home, in the car, or any other place where it is secure and readily available.

A general explanation of each section of the plan is as follows:

Action Sheet

This is a summary sheet of the plan and that can be used as a checklist for the step by step procedures and the assignment of each.  It has a space for “Assigned To,” “Steps,” “Associated Notes,” and “Notes.”

Immediate Response

Section identifies some steps and important guidelines that may take place soon after an incident occurs.  It also includes:

     Damage Assessment-  References are made to important campus forms that should be completed on assessing damage.  Assessing damage becomes very important for safety purposes, reimbursement of destruction, and reporting.

     Team Meeting-  A team meeting should be called to discuss relevant matters, assign team leader and alternate team leader roles, availability of resources, notification and reporting.

Work Area Restoration

This section provides the steps to take should a disaster occur to the facility where the department is located.

Downtime Procedures

This section is the first section that requires some effort on management’s part.  The first page titled “Critical Function template” is an organization checklist to your downtime procedures/plan.  It lists those potential critical functions, or areas that may be dependent on by the department, and critical software applications.   These procedures are meant to address a 5 business day’s system outage.   Once this page is completed, you may proceed to the following pages which include the various downtime procedures by function.  Read each section carefully, then as instructed, choose from the options disclosed.  Should you have your own procedures for this section, send these to the Business Continuity (BC) Department in electronic form.  The BC contact person is indicated. 

Work From Home

These procedures note the procedures that should be followed should you be permitted to work from.  It is important to obtain clearance/approval of this from your supervisor prior to working from home.  Procedures cover the various means of accessing information remotely from a computer and the various applications or networks available for this same purpose.

Resume Function

These address those procedures to establish data processing connections, resume regular working schedule, resolving outstanding problems, planning for your permanent facility, return home and reporting.

Employee Call List

The Department is tasked with the upkeep of an Employee call list.  Please provide any existing call tree or organization chart for your department to Business Continuity.  

Note: A “call tree” is a list of names with contact information such as cell phone numbers, home numbers, or pager numbers.  The purpose of this documented information is to allow an individual to call others and instruct them on procedures in the event of a disaster or crisis.

BCC Contact Info

Lists names and contact information for the Department of Business Affairs and the office of Business Continuity.

Incident Command Center

This tab section has the listing of those locations identified as the Incident Command Centers (ICC) and related information, ICC Radio Channels, the HEICS (Hospital Emergency Incident Command System) Structure, and the HEICS Job Assignments.  An Incident Command Center is the location that will head command should a disaster arise.  UT Southwestern has designated a room at the S1 Building, NG Building, and St. Paul to house the Incident Command Centers.

Supply List

This list includes only standard supplies that may be necessary in an adverse event for basic office and Clinical supply.  Any specific needs a department may have will need to be provided.

Immediate Needs

This is a list of immediate requirement considerations.  It provides a column for what is required currently and required in one week.

Campus Forms

This section contains the various forms that may be required in an event of a disaster or crisis.  Management should become familiar with these forms and their distribution.