Evaluator’s Handbook

Facility Evacuation (Complete or Partial)

Evaluators

Evaluators are personnel who have an active role in responding to such an emergency. Evaluators are subject matter experts in their fields of work. Evaluators judge actions that will control and mitigate the simulated emergency.

Exercise Identification

All players, evaluators, controllers, and planners in the tabletop exercise will be wearing their hospital identification and or their HICS vest.

Confidentiality

Exercise information and materials should be given to only those people and organizations actually participating in the exercise.

Communications

Evaluators’ communications will be very limited to exercise players. Communication may be made available (if needed) as the exercise progresses. The need to maintain capability for a real world response may preclude the use of all communications channels or systems that would usually be available for an actual incident. In no instance will exercise communications interfere with real-world emergency communications.

In the event of a real emergency, the CODE “This is a real emergency” will be used to stop the tabletop exercise.

Exercise Assumptions

The following assumptions must be made in order to ensure that the exercise is as realistic as possible. It is intended that exercise events progress in a logical and realistic manner and that all exercise objectives be achieved during exercise play.

  • The term “participants” includes planners, controllers, evaluators, and players.
  • Exercise participants are well versed in their own department and agency response plans and procedures.
  • Exercise participants are familiar with the operation of the Hospital and Incident Command System (ICS) and the relationship between Hospital, local and provincial government during a large-scale emergency or disaster.
  • Evaluators will use real-world data and information to support the evaluator process.
  • Evaluators will evaluate in accordance with existing plans, policies, and procedures. In the absence of appropriate written instructions, evaluators will be expected to apply individual initiative to satisfy response and recovery requirements.
  • Evaluation of implementation of disaster response plans, policies, and procedures during the exercise will depict actions that would be expected to occur under actual response conditions and, therefore, will provide a sound basis for the evaluation process.
  • Actions to direct unit, personnel, or resource deployments will result in simulated movement during the exercise and will be evaluated upon that.
  • Real-world response actions will take priority over exercise actions.

Exercise Artificialities

It is recognized that the following artificialities and constraints will detract from realism; however, exercise planners should accept these artificialities as a means of facilitating accomplishment of exercise objectives.

  • The exercise will be played in near-real time; however, to meet exercise objectives, some events may be accomplished by participants, before the exercise, and other events may be accelerated in time to ensure their consideration during play.
  • Many alert, notification, initial activation, and emergency response procedures, as well as some early response actions, will not be a part of the exercise.
  • Responses obtained by players from simulations may not be of the quality or detail available from the real organization or individual.
  • During the exercise, actions may occur to direct unit, personnel, or resource deployments, and subsequent movement of resources may be played; however, these actions may be simulated with no live movement occurring in the exercise.
  • Some personnel and equipment may be pre-positioned at exercise locations prior to the exercise rather than move in real-time during the exercise, and they will enter play at predetermined times from their pre-positioned location.
  • When this exercise artificiality occurs, it will be referred to in exercise documentation as exercise pre-positioning to differentiate it from the live deployments that will be evaluated.

Exercise Simulations

Controllers will be utilized to simulate everything inside and outside of the hospital. Although simulations may detract from exercise realism, the simulated incidents, messages from and to simulated entities provide the means to facilitate exercise play and provide for the testing of exercise objectives and performance criteria.