You can’t have cooperation without a COOP

In looking over some recent editions of Perpsectives, I came across an interesting statistic that, frankly, has me a little bit befuddled. According to the Consistent Interpretations column in the October edition, there were 18 hospitals surveyed during 2023 (out of 1,385 hospitals surveyed) that were found deficient relative to their Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP). The findings fell into two areas:

• The organization did not have a COOP
• The organization’s COOP did not sufficiently describe how the organization would continue to perform essential business functions during an emergency

In looking back at some of the events that have buffeted healthcare (yes, I’m talking to you, pandemic!), I’m trying to wrap my head around how a healthcare organization would have been able to stay open and operational without having the essential elements of a COOP. I’m basing that mostly on the purpose of the COOP, which is to have a plan to stay open and operational during an emergency. I suppose it’s possible that there was not a clear documentation of the COOP, but I can’t imagine that anyone who managed to weather the pandemic didn’t have the structure in place to support ongoing operations. Healthcare didn’t “survive” COVID (or any of the number of emergencies that have occurred in recent and not-so-recent past) by accident. I suppose it might come down to surveyor preference in how the information is presented and, percentage-wise, it is a small number of hospitals surveyed. However, it might not be the worst thing, particularly as we make our break to 2025 and another round of annual evaluations, to dust off the COOP and make sure that you can point to the persistence of essential business functions during an emergency as a cornerstone of your planning.

About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Chartis Group. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is an advisory board member for Accreditation and Quality Compliance Center. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.