Developing indicators and triggers can help healthcare organizations plan for disasters, according to an Institute of Medicine report.
The IOM's Committee on Crisis Standards of Care wrote "Crisis Standards of Care: A Toolkit for Indicators and Triggers" following the 2009 and 2012 release of two other reports on disaster preparation and response for healthcare organizations.
This report discusses indicators, defined by the committee as "measurements or predictors of change in demand for healthcare services or availability of resources," and triggers, "decision points about adaptations to healthcare service delivery." The committee recommends four steps to help develop indicators and triggers for crisis standards of care:
1. Identify key response strategies and actions that the agency or facility would use to respond to an incident.
2. Identify and examine potential indicators that inform the decision to initiate these actions.
3. Determine trigger points for taking these actions.
4. Determine tactics that could be implemented at these trigger points.
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