A Practical Look at Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management

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A Practical Look at Emergency
Preparedness and Crisis Management
Institute of Medicine
Workshop on Public Health Risks of Disasters
June 22, 2004

• Jack Azar
• Vice-President
• Environment, Health and Safety
• Xerox Corporation

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Establishing a Foundation for Action

• Integrating emergency response, crisis management
  and business continuity activities...

Emergency Response Initial actions to protect
Xerox people, property, surrounding communities,
and the environment. Crisis Management
Continuing activities to manage large-scale
events. Business Continuity Ongoing actions to
maintain or resume operations and support
customers.
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Establishing a Foundation for ActionEvolution
of a Process
Xerox Actions
2001 Mail safety team
2002 Crisis Mgmt
plan Shelter-in-Place process
1999 Business Continuity planning
2000 Emergency Prep standard
2004 EHS tracking all sites
2001 9/11 response - Xerox WTC employees -
Customer ops (WTC vicinity)
2003 Shelter-in-Place worldwide
Initiative for consistent company-wide planning
9/11/2001 terrorist attacks
Oct 2001 anthrax threat
Aug 2003 on-site shooting NE
blackout
Local OEP request for SIP plan
Key Influencing Events
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Establishing a Foundation for ActionManaging
the Process
Emergency Preparedness (EHS)
Tracking and auditing ER plans (EHS) and BC
plans (Operations)
Business Continuity planning (Operations)
Crisis Management process
(Senior Mgmt reps)
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Establishing a Foundation for ActionPolicy and
Deployment
Emergency
Preparedness Standard
Deployment Challenges

• Global deployment - 114 major sites and several
  thousand small facilities
• Varied nature of operations
• Manufacturing
• RD labs

• Issued May 2000, revised Oct 2003
• Scope Worldwide
• Key Requirements
• Risk assessment
• Emergency response plan
• Alerts
• Employee communications
• Evacuation
• Employee training
• Annual drills
• Annual plan review

• Offices
• Owned vs. leased

Approach

• Integrate different functional perspectives
• Include in existing business processes

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Case 1 - Policy into PracticeXeroxs Response
to Fall 2001 Anthrax Threat
Emergency Situation October 2001

• Anthrax spores in letters in Florida, NYC and DC
• At risk
• Over 7000 Xerox people
• Xerox Services employees operating customer mail
  rooms in affected areas
• Xerox customer service engineers in U.S. post
  offices and mail handling facilities
• Xerox support of customer operations

Response

• Equipped employees with respirators and
  protective gloves

• Results
• Employees protected
• Uninterrupted customer operations
• 500K cost to Xerox

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Xeroxs Response to Anthrax Threat Timeline of
Events
National Events
Oct 4 First case confirmed (FL)
Oct 12 Cutaneous anthrax (NY)
Oct 20 Anthrax in postal equip (DC)
Oct 21 USPS swab testing (DC)
Oct 24 CDC advisory
2001
2002
Xerox Actions
Oct 25 Sr mgmt OKs broad response
Nov 6 Fit testing begun
(NY, DC, FL) respirators mandatory in affected
areas customer letter
Jan 2 PPE no
longer mandatory
Oct 16 Voluntary swab testing approved
Oct 5 Mail Safety team formed
Oct 26 Memo re PPE actively
seek fit testers

• Cross-org team
• Daily meetings

• Challenges
• How to respond?
• Identifying affected employees

• PPE avail distribution
• Fit testing, training med clearance

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Case 2 - Policy into PracticeActivating Xerox
Webster, NYs Shelter-in-Place Plan

• Shelter-in-Place (SIP) Plan provisions for
  sheltering employees inside a building to protect
  against hazardous conditions outside the building.

Impetus for Planning
Elements of 2001 Plan

• Webster Site is 7 miles from nuclear power plant
• Coordination with county OEP
• Pre-9/11 plan addressed
• Radiological and chemical events
• Violence or civil unrest
• Severe weather
• Post 9/11 plan enhancements recognized increased
  risk of terrorist activities

• Unique emergency alert process
• Safe zones and coordinators (MERT)
• Shutdown of ventilation critical processes
• Emergency power
• Potassium iodide distribution
• Handling of medical emergencies
• Annual drills

June/July 2003 plan finalized and tested August
2003 sitewide emergency
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Activating Xerox Websters Shelter-in-Place
PlanTuesday, August 12, 2003
Webster Site Emergency Situation

• Armed robbery of on-site credit union, 930 a.m.
• Two Xerox employees shot, one fatally
• Shooters location unknown

Response Activate SIP Plan (although not
designed for such a situation)

• Results
• Employees protected for 8 hours
• No medical emergencies
• Identified improvements to plan

• 7000 site employees in safe zones within 15
  minutes
• Law enforcement launched sitewide search

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Improvements to Shelter-in-Place
PlanningLearning from Experience
Improvement Actions

• Supplies
• Food distribution
• Safe zone emergency supply kits

• Security
• Improved site building access control
• Coordination with law enforcement

• Communication
• E-mail news distribution to employees
• Communication center for safe zone coordinators
• Media communications

• General
• Review of safe zone boundaries
• SIP plan required for all sites worldwide

Other Critical Considerations

• Plan flexibility
• Information flow

• Employee training and cooperation

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Public Policy Recommendations

• Include private sector in emergency response
  planning activities and communications
• Offer opportunities for government and industry
  entities to share lessons learned
• Provide regulatory relief for emergency
  situations
• e.g. OSHA emergency respiratory protection
  standard