Inter-organizational communication with the CWS agency and other governmental officials is also essential to the development and implementation of an effective emergency response plan, yet these external contact points have not been adequately included in the hospital's current plan, which will greatly reduce its ability to receive and react to accurate and current information. This in turn creates many inefficiencies in both cost and care (EPA 2004).
EMS:
The Emergency Medical Services emergency response plan is far more comprehensive, and more reflective of the most recent recommended models for small- to mid-sized community water system emergency response plans (AWWA 2009; EPA 2004). The main issues in this plan as it now stands are in the extensive list of responsibilities falling to whomever performs the staging function, and the scope of coordinated efforts called for....
There is little that can be done concerning the latter -- depending on the size of the emergency, the complexity of the situation might simply outgrow the scope of local capabilities (EPA 2004). The responsibilities listed for the staging function, however, can be split among various other officers without damaging the efficacy of the plan, and with possible improvements to both efficacy and efficiency (AWWA 2009).
