Mission Continuity Management
Team (MCMT) Meeting
November 22, 2013
Mary Vassar, RN, MS
Background
• BASIC is a 24/7 clinical, academic and research enterprise
• Over 30 FTE – faculty, staff and post-doc trainees
• 5 basic science laboratories with over $8 million in annual
research funding
• Housed on first and second floors of Building 1
How we started on Continuity Planning
• Needed to be a dynamic process, not a
document that is thrown together because
approval is needed by the University
• Needed to involve people throughout our
organization working as a team -- rather than
“Me” sitting at my computer working in a
vacuum and writing a text book plan that
would read perfectly to any outside reviewer
Action Items Prioritized
Conducted Vulnerability Assessment for
Research Labs:
Action Item #1: Preserve Animal Colonies:
coordinate plan with LARC to identify care needs
and prioritize most irreplaceable animals in the
event of loss of boarding capacity.
Action Items Prioritized
Conducted Vulnerability Assessment for
Research Labs:
Action Item #2: Preserve Irreplaceable
Specimens: 1) coordinate identification
of high priority frozen specimens and
cubic feet of space needed for off-site
storage;
2) pre-event identification of on-site
irreplaceable specimens for emergency
relocation in the event of back-up power
failure. Can’t prioritize at the time of the
event.
Planning Elements for Preservation of
Irreplaceable Frozen Specimens
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Likely hazards to mitigate
Essential response capabilities and dependencies
Communications
Continuity of operations
Development of job action sheets
Process for addressing gaps
Exercise to test the plans and training procedures
Objectives for Day of the Exercise
1.
Test emergency specimen relocation procedures to determine if:
• Appropriate actions are identified in the plan & procedures
• Necessary resources (BASIC & external/upstream) identified
• Appropriate staff (BASIC & external/upstream) identified
• Likely scenarios and logistical considerations addressed?
• What type of training will other staff (new hires, lab, clinical and
admin) need – i.e., beyond reading the procedures to implement?
• How much time will it take to train other employees?
• How frequently will staff need to practice to maintain familiarity
with the procedures?
• We are confident that we have done everything feasible to assure
samples can be salvaged in non-catastrophic emergencies?
2. Hotwash to evaluate what worked and what didn’t and update and
improve the Continuity Plan to integrate exercise outcomes.
Goal: Save high priority
frozen specimens!
Baseline - Prior to Planning and Exercise
• What back-up procedures do we have for -80
freezers?
– Bldg 1 back-up generator plugs
– Dry ice from hospital supply or call Air Gas
The Exercise Scenario
• Two years of drought in California
• Water reservoir volumes are critically low,
and statewide communities are rationing
water use.
Saturday July 21, 2012
Statewide Power Reserves @ <1%
Saturday July 21st @ 8 PM:
CA ISO Declared First Ever
Stage 3 Emergency and
Rolling Blackouts Initiated
16 Million Residential and
Commercial Customers
without Power. National
Weather Service issued
Excessive Heat Warning
through Tuesday.
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Sunday July 22, 2012
• Nearly all BASIC lab faculty and staff are out-oftown at the Annual Meeting of the National
Neurotrauma Society in Phoenix through
Wednesday.
Sunday July 22, 2012 – 2 PM
• Amity, Ellen, Xioakui and Tim are also going to Phoenix
on a 6 PM flight as they all have poster sessions on
Monday or Tuesday.
• They all planned to meet at the lab to ride BART to
the airport together and check the freezers due to
concerns from news reports about rolling blackouts.
• Lab temp is over 90 degrees & all freezers alarming
Sunday July 22, 2012
Exercise Begins
• 2:15 pm - Participants relocate to Freezer Bay
• Participants have 45 minutes to work through the
response plan. Creative problem solving is
encouraged during play, however, decisions must
be based on reality of the scenario and expected
resources.
• Facilitator will be providing scenario injects as
you work through the response plan.
• Remember to document times, problems, actions
and decisions etc. We expect gaps to be
identified, we aren’t expecting perfection.
Goal: Save high priority
frozen specimens!
Post Planning and Exercise
• What back-up procedures do we have for -80 freezers?
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Bldg 1 back-up generator plugs (power diverted to patient care bldgs)
Dry Ice from hospital Supply (allocated to patient care services)
Air Gas Delivery (overwhelmed & allocated to patient care services)
CO2 back-up system in the freezers (requires batteries and liquid CO2).
Dry ice chest with weekly delivery—(research requests will be low priority
for allocating dry ice in a disaster)
– Spare -80 Freezer is staged at Oyster Point (result of planning research and
exercise)
– For future action – send duplicate samples to remote biorepository
Responding kit
Specimen Preservation
Decision Tree
Generators
on?
Yes
Check
Periodically
No
Keep Door
Closed
No
“Save Me Box”
Strategy
Put in Dry Ice
Chest
Notify PI
CO2 Backup
Yes
Freezer Disaster Logs
“SAVE ME” Freezer Boxes
• Tissue specimen from
current Projects
• 1 set of cut tissues per
project
• Inventory updated
periodically
“Save Me” Box Strategy
• Implement only when Generators and
CO2 do not activate.
– Place in dry ice box (assure weekly delivery has arrived)
– Place in Cooler with dry ice and relocate to Oyster Point
• Located in the lower left hand corner of
each freezer.
Importance of Details!
How do I access the freezer at
Oyster Point’s Biorepository?
• In an emergency, contact UCSF Police at 476-1414
• Request to go down the Oyster Point call out list
– (Otherwise call Anthony Meno at (415) 476-5907, https://clsdsb2b.ucsf.edu)
• Directions to OP
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101 South.
Take the Oyster Point Blvd East exit, and go east to Gull Drive.
At Gull Drive, turn right.
At Forbes, turn left, then an immediate right into the parking lot.
Park in a visitor spot in the lot at 612 Forbes in South San Francisco.
Come to the 612 Forbes door. Ring the "Air Phone" button and someone will
answer- six desks here have access to the air phone. Someone will buzz you
in. Please sign in.
• Freezer ID:
– Property Number#072000185
– Model Number# ULT-25869SIA
Conclusions
• Planning process has been critical to improving our
ability to preserve research specimens
• Conducting exercise (not just tabletop) made staff
recognize how the details of the structures and
processes need to be tested under a variety of
scenarios
• Experiences from Hurricanes Katrina, Irene and
Sandy, 2011 Japan Earthquake and Fike Lab fire have
increased faculty and staff awareness/buy-in for the
importance establishing a culture of preparedness
Conclusions
• There is a struggle to prioritize the time
required for department staff and faculty to
do effective planning and training on top of
existing workloads
• Support from Esther and UC Ready planning
application have provided time saving tools
and resources to get the work on our
Continuity Plan done.
For more details:
vassarm@neurosurg.ucsf.edu