Policy 06:07:00

Platt College's Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP) is designed for use by the entire college community. The EPP establishes standard operating guidelines, based on existing policies and procedures, for the response to an emergency impacting the College. The EPP describes the emergency management roles and responsibilities of the entire college community and provides a strategy to be prepared as possible for the most likely hazards.  The EPP is designed to protect lives and property through effective use of college, local, state and federal resources.  Since an emergency may be sudden and without warning, the EPP is intended to be flexible in order to accommodate contingencies of various types and magnitudes. The EPP does not limit the use of good judgment and common sense in matters not foreseen or covered by the elements of the plan.

While crime, threatening weather and accidents are thankfully rare events, the EPP provides useful information on how to react to, lessen or avoid completely the potentially negative consequences of a number of dangerous situations. Knowing how to behave—who to call, where to go and what to do—when a crisis occurs can prove the difference between life and death.

Emergency Notification - Platt College Emergency Alert

Emergencies at Platt College are categorized into two sections: Major Emergencies and Minor Emergencies. 

Major Emergency: Any incident that affects the entire building, which will disrupt the overall operation of the College.  In this case outside emergency services will be required, as well as major resource efforts from the Emergency Resource Team.  Call 911.

Disaster: Any event that seriously impairs or halts the operations of the College.  In some cases mass personnel casualties and severe property damage may be sustained.  A coordinated effort of all college-wide resources is required to control the situation.  Outside emergency services will be essential.  In all cases of disaster, an emergency control center will be activated by the Emergency Resource Team and the appropriate support and operational plans will be executed.  Call 911.

The major emergency procedures outlined in this guide are designed to aid in the protection of lives and property through effective use of available college resources.  Whenever an emergency affecting the College reaches proportions that cannot be handled by routine measures, the College President or designee may declare a state of emergency and implement these guidelines. 

The College President of designee serves as overall emergency director during any major emergency disaster.  The following definitions of an emergency are provided as guidelines to assist Platt College employees in determining the appropriate response.

Any incident that will not seriously affect the overall functional capacity of the College.  Report immediately to the College President or his/her designee.  In the event that College President is not on the premises, report immediately to the Chief Financial Officer or the Dean of Nursing.

The College President or designee will make the determination if a state of emergency is to be declared and the type.  During a college emergency, the College President or designee will place into effect the necessary measures to secure the College personnel and property.  Only authorized persons will be allowed on the college premises during the declared state of emergency.  The Emergency Resource Team, and others designated by the College President as essential will comprise authorized personnel. 

• For police, fire, or ambulance: dial 911
• Notification of the Emergency Resource Team. 

The telephone system is the primary means of emergency notification. The phone system will be used as a college wide paging system in the event of an emergency. During an emergency, the system should be limited to transmission of specific information regarding the emergency. Initial contact with team members should be made through the telephone system.  The message that comes over the telephone system will indicate which emergency is occurring, code followed by a color.  If the phone system is not functioning, the Emergency Director will indicate by word-of-mouth, which code is occurring or through college email. Depending on the immediate nature of the emergency, the College website will also be used as a method for alerting college constituents of emergencies. 

The College will issue Emergency Alerts, without delay, unless issuing an Alert will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate an emergency.

• The Emergency Notification Team is responsible for providing timely updates and information relative to an emergency to the campus community via the College website, e-mail, and/or other communication systems.
• Dissemination of Emergency Information to Larger Community
• Information about an emergency is shared with the local community via the College President or his/her designee. 

Evacuation procedures are incident dependent.  The first emergency responder on the scene makes an initial determination on evacuation and uses the Emergency Management Plan to execute a safe evacuation, when appropriate.

• This policy was established with the following assumptions:
• Utilization of multiple notification methods is needed as no single notification method will reach everyone, everywhere, every time.
• 100 % delivery of notification to each member of the campus population cannot be guaranteed.
• Other information sources outside the institutions control may generate erroneous or conflicting information (i.e. unaffiliated social media sites, word of mouth)
• Testing of emergency notification systems is required to ensure proper functionality and skill.
• Notification systems must account for communication impairments.
• Several notification methods rely on the functionality of third party vendors that are outside of the institution’s control (cell phone service providers, electricity)

Platt College’s Emergency Preparedness Plan Procedures have been written to provide a basic manual for college personnel to follow and to help in planning for emergencies occurring on campus. While it cannot provide a guide for every conceivable situation, it does provide guidelines that when followed will allow a crisis to be handled in an orderly fashion. All requests for procedural change will be submitted to Platt College’s administrative team for review. All changes recommended by the team will be made accessible to all college employees. Platt College’s administrative team conducts an annual review of the Emergency Preparedness Plan and has updates completed by July 1 of each year. Platt College conducts a test of the emergency procedures annually. Emergency response and evacuation procedures are publicized to the campus community in conjunction with these tests. Each test is documented with a description of the test, date, time, and whether it was announced or unannounced.

In order for the College to maintain a state of readiness and test critical response components, an annual exercise and drill is conducted. Each exercise or drill is documented with a description of the test, date, time, and whether it was announced or unannounced.