DEVELOPING YOUR EMERGENCY AND RISK COMMUNICATION PLAN
CHECKLIST
PURPOSE
This checklist will help you develop an emergency and risk communication plan and organize your
organizations emergency communication response capability from start to finish. Your emergency and
risk communication plan should address: role, lines of responsibility and resources you will need as you
provide information to staff, patients, partners, the local community and the media.
INSTRUCTIONS
The checklist follows the Emergency and Risk Communication Guidance Document and can be used in
conjunction with the document and appendices. The checklist has been formatted so that development
of the plan can occur in stages rather than in one plan development meeting. For example, at one
meeting your organization can work on the ‘Roles, Responsibilities and Activation’ or the
‘Communication with the Media’ section. Each section has a checklist of areas that may be included in
your plan. The items in the checklist are suggestions and your planning should not be limited to what is
included in the checklist.
Task
Roles, Responsibilities and Activation
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Identify communication tools/channels that are used by your organization. These can include:
 Phone
 Email
 Everbridge- or another mass notification tool
 Website
Establish Crisis Communications Team
 Crisis Communications Team Worksheet can be found in Appendix
Identify who will be responsible for activation of the emergency and risk communication plan.
Criteria to consider:
 Severity of incident
 Percentage/number of employees, departments impacted
 Prolonged loss of contact
Create procedures for information verification, clearance and approval
Identify resources and equipment that will be needed to implement your communication plan
Record all Administrative Access Information to important accounts such as:
 Website Changes
 ReddiNet
 Facebook, Twitter
 Dropbox
 Pay Play
 Remote login- Outlook
Integrate communication into existing emergency plans
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Internal Communication
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Develop and regularly update an Emergency Staff Contact List of current staff which includes:
 Home Phone
 Cell Phone
 Email
 Family Contact Information
Identify current communication tools that are used by staff in everyday internal communication
Task Assigned To:
Date Completed:
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Establish procedures for notifying staff during an emergency or disaster situation including:
 Communication Tools: email, mass notification system (Everbridge), text or phone tree
etc.
 Redundant Communication Tools: using Everbridge and text tree
 Include confirmation measures into the plan to provide the clinic with information on
staff
Inform and train staff on emergency and risk communication plan
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Communication with Patients
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Identify communication tools your organization will use when contacting patients:
 Consider how you normally contact patients and how you can use them in providing
information to patients in an emergency or disaster
Develop procedures for contacting patients. Consider the following:
 Message Content
 Frequency of Messages
 Dealing with questions from patients
Read through Rapid Message Tool and identify messages for hazards that are common for your
area.
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Communication with External Agencies
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Identify essential external agencies and partners that you will need to communicate with during
a disaster
Update/Develop/Add to Contact Phone Book provided in the Appendices:
 Primary Contacts
 Health and Emergency Organizations
 Community Organizations
 Utilities and Vendors
Develop procedures for coordinating and communicating with important stakeholders and
partners
 ‘Just in time’ resource request procedures from local vendors
Communication with Community
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Identify communication tools that you will use in your local community
Identify special populations within your community with may include:
 Individuals that speak languages other than English
 Limited Literacy
 Hearing Impaired
 Visually Impaired
 Homeless
Develop message templates that you can use when communicating with the surrounding
community
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Communication with Media
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Identify main local media outlets through which information can be disseminated (print, radio,
TV stations, etc.)
Develop and maintain trustworthy, credible relationships with the local media
 Have contact information for local media outlets
Designate a primary and secondary spokesperson; can be the Public Information Officer
 Crisis Communication Team Worksheet
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Policies and procedure review and/or development of information release to media
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Establish and/or review policy for all staff interaction with Media ON and OFF-SITE
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Create Key Messages and Talking points to ensure consistent messaging. Resources:
 See Media Relations section in Appendix
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Plan and Equipment Maintenance and Testing
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Develop a schedule for testing and ensure the staff are familiar with the plan
Develop a schedule for updating Contact Phone Book and Staff Contact Information