Continuity of Operations

User’s Guide

Goal

The goal of the Sustaining Critical Services: Continuity of Operations toolkit is to help you develop and implement a continuity of operations plan.

Objectives

• Develop tools to advance BC planning for LHD’s in the areas of essential function identification, order of succession, vital resource management and human capital management and emergency operations center management
• Develop tools to enhance leadership decision-making regarding allocation of resources across continuity and response operations
• Develop plans to integrate BC operations into incident command

Getting Started

This web toolkit consists of ten tools. The first seven will assist health departments with pre-event continuity of operations planning before an emergency occurs. The last three will assist health departments to manage the impacts of an emergency or disaster on business operations as it is happening.

Each tool is supplemented with links to helpful resources – blank templates, completed samples, and additional background materials. The ten planning exercises can be completed without these additional resources, but they are provided with the intent of helping agencies save time and serve to further clarify the strategies in this toolkit. Links can also assist planners who wish to delve deeper into continuity of operations planning.

By completing the ten tools in this web toolkit, you are greatly improving your department’s readiness to activate its continuity of operations plan. The tools can be used as individual planning exercises, but you will benefit from following the sequencing and links indicated. And, you will achieve the best results and minimize overlapping efforts by completing all ten tools in order.

You may wish to charter a continuity of operations workgroup representing workers from your major operating units to assist with and review products generated by this planning effort. A sample charter for such a group is included.

How the tools are designed to be used

Each tool has its own page on the Sustaining Critical Services website. The landing page for each tool contains instructions for completing that planning exercise. On these landing pages, you will find the following information:

Description	A succinct summary of the tool’s purpose and benefit.
What You Need Before Starting This Work	Prerequisites for the planning exercise. Discussion of ideal sequencing for completing this tool relative to other tools.
If You Have Just a Little Time to Spend	The quick and dirty approach to completing this exercise. The bare-minimum you should have in place to enhance your COOP capability in this area.
Steps to Completion	Step-by-step instructions for using this tool.

You will find this additional information on following pages:

If You Have More Time to Spend	The optimum approach to completing this planning exercise. Tips on how to leverage this planning exercise to further enhance your COOP capability.
Where This Leads You	What you can do after completing this exercise. Next steps for your COOP planning.
Pitfalls to Avoid	Observations based on PHSKC’s experience in implementing this tool. Gives insight into where this planning process or utilization of these products can get derailed.
How You Know You Got it Right	Observations based on PHSKC’s successful experience implementing this tool. These are often anecdotes about a time when this tool or product was utilized by PHSKC and the benefit we experienced.
Considerations for Rural Health Departments	Observations on how the tools might be adapted for use by small or rural health departments.
Resources to Support This Tool	Links to templates, samples, and further resources to assist you in the completion of this exercise.

Each tool’s webpage is peppered with helpful call outs, links to glossary terms, and clickable links for those who wish to delve deeper.

FEMA’s Continuity Evaluation Tool is cited throughout the toolkit as a method for health departments to either assess gaps in a particular capability area prior to beginning the planning exercises, or assess after implementation, which gaps remain. This is the agency’s recommended self-assessment tool for government agencies. After completing the ten tools included in this toolkit, the number of “yes” responses to FEMA’s Continuity Evaluation Tool should increase.

Resources Discussed in the User’s Guide:

• Sample Charter for Department Business Continuity Planning Team
• FEMA Continuity Evaluation Tool

Table of Contents

	Introduction User Guide Sample Charter for Department Business Continuity Planning Team FEMA Continuity Evaluation Tool
1	Prioritizing Critical Functions Instruction Sheet SFP Prioritization Framework – sample Critical Services Form –blank Critical Services Form – sample Sample Charter for Department Continuity of Operations Planning Team
2	Line of Succession Planning Instruction Sheet Line of Succession – Template Line of Succession - Sample Line of Succession - How Deep to Go? Sample Procedures for Activating Line of Succession
3	Delegations of Authority Instruction Sheet Delegation of Authority (Non-Medical) – blank Delegation of Authority (Medical) – blank Delegation of Authority – Sample
4	Identifying & Notifying Critical Staff Instruction Sheet Critical Staff Policy Issues Critical Employees List – Template Critical Employees List – Sample Sample Notification Process Sample Notification Letter Sample Talking Points for Supervisors
5	Identifying & Notifying Critical Vendors Instruction Sheet Critical Vendor List – Template Critical Vendor List – Sample Sample Purchase Order Clause Vendors Business Resiliency Survey –Sample
6	Contingency Planning for Critical Services Instruction Sheet Critical Activities Planning Worksheet Contingency Plan – Outline Contingency Plan – Sample
7	Exercising Your Continuity of Operations Plans Instruction Sheet COOP Exercise Purpose, Structure, Objectives COOP Weather Exercise Slides – Word format COOP Exercise After Action Report – Sample
8	Integrating Continuity of Operations with Incident Command Instruction Sheet Continuity Operations Section – SOP ICS Org Chart with COOP Role COOP Activation Protocols COOP Section SOP Outline
9	Managing Resources Across the Response-Continuity Continuum Instruction Sheet Resource Allocation Model - Blank Worksheet Resource Allocation Model - Sample
10	Monitoring the Status of Critical Functions During an Emergency Instruction Sheet Program Functional Status Form - Template Program Functional Status Form - Sample COOP Status Update – Rollup Sample emails activating the program status reporting process

*Last updated 2012