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Assess emergency preparedness as a recurring, facility-specific cycle: identify credible hazards and dependencies, estimate how they could disrupt care, rank the risks, check plans and capabilities against the highest priorities, test the response, and correct what the test exposes. In the United States, Medicare and Medicaid participants must also verify the emergency-preparedness requirements for their particular provider or supplier category; CMS’s four core elements are risk assessment and planning, policies and procedures, a communication plan, and training and testing.
This guide is U.S.-focused. CMS requirements vary by provider type, and state, local, accreditation, or other applicable requirements may add obligations. A general checklist can organize an assessment, but it cannot determine a facility’s legal compliance. Confirm the current rule and CMS State Operations Manual Appendix Z guidance for the facility’s category.
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1. Define what and whom the assessment covers
Before listing hazards, set the boundaries of the assessment. Record the facility type, jurisdiction, sites or campuses included, assessment period, population served, and essential clinical services. A hospital, nursing facility, home health agency, and other provider categories may face different requirements and operational risks.
Bring together the people who understand how the facility works and what it depends on. Depending on the site, this may include clinical operations, emergency management, facilities and engineering, information technology and cybersecurity, security, infection prevention, supply chain, communications, human resources, and leadership. Involve local emergency management, public health, neighboring providers, and the healthcare coalition where possible; regional planning can reveal shared dependencies and resource limits that one facility may not see alone.
#1 Best Overall
- 72 HOUR EMERGENCY KIT FOR 2 PEOPLE WITH FOOD AND WATER: Includes 2 emergency food bars totaling 4800 calories and 12 sealed drinking water pouches to support hydration and energy during disasters. Designed for emergency preparedness, survival kits, earthquake kits, and evacuation planning.
- COMPLETE DISASTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH SHELTER AND WARMTH: Equipped with 2 emergency ponchos and 2 survival blankets to help protect against rain, wind, and cold conditions. Critical gear for outdoor emergencies, power outages, and shelter in place situations.
- FIRST AID KIT AND SAFETY PROTECTION SUPPLIES: Features a 33 piece first aid kit, dust masks, and nitrile gloves to support basic medical care and protection from debris and airborne particles. Essential for emergency response, injury care, and disaster safety.
- EMERGENCY LIGHTING AND SIGNALING TOOLS INCLUDED: Comes with 2 long lasting 12 hour lightsticks and a safety whistle for visibility and communication in low light or rescue situations. Ideal for blackout emergencies, nighttime evacuation, and search scenarios.
- COMPACT BACKPACK FOR GRAB AND GO EVACUATION: Lightweight emergency backpack keeps all survival supplies organized and ready for fast response. Perfect for home emergency kits, car emergency kits, office preparedness, and bug out bags.
2. Identify hazards and the dependencies that can turn them into care disruptions
Build an all-hazards inventory using local conditions, facility records, incident history, and staff expertise. CMS’s core emergency-preparedness elements identify area hazards and operational emergencies such as care-related incidents, equipment or power failures, interrupted communications—including cyberattacks—loss of all or part of a facility, and loss of supplies. Add only locally relevant events and dependencies that could affect this facility.
Look beyond the initiating event
For each plausible hazard, trace its potential effects through the services the facility must sustain. A loss of power, for example, could affect clinical equipment, refrigeration, communications, building systems, or staff access at the same time. That is a scenario to analyze, not a claim that every facility will experience that sequence.
Map critical dependencies, including power, water, communications, staffing, supply chains, information systems, transportation, and partner services where relevant. Note which services rely on each dependency, what backup arrangements exist, and how long critical functions could continue if the dependency failed. Include internal hazards as well as external ones: an incident can originate inside the facility or in the systems and organizations it relies on.
Rank #2
- [Preparedness for the Unknown]: While no one can predict when or how severe a disaster or unexpected event will be, our 262pcs survival kit helps your family stay prepared during the critical first 72 hours. Designed for family use, it was developed in collaboration with survival experts, outdoor professionals, special forces operators, and mountain guides. Whether you're preparing for earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, or hurricanes, our survival kit provides peace of mind.
- [Comprehensive Emergency Supply Kit]: The included emergency supplies are stored in a bright red pouch, containing tweezers, scissors and pins, non-woven pad, triangular cotton cloth, cotton swabs, cotton balls, a generous supply of adhesive strips etc., meeting your general emergency and outdoor needs. It also includes an emergency information card to record your basic information, helping others quickly access important information when needed.
- [Safety Companion for Journey]: Our emergency kit includes many survival gear and supplies to ensure access to food, water, warmth, and light in a crisis. The fishing kit and multi-usage spoon help you catch and prepare food, while the collapsible water container bag helps store water. Fire starter and stick make it easy to build a fire. A flashlight, camping lamp, and glow sticks provide up to 72 hours of lighting, crucial for signaling for help and safe navigation.
- [Essential Survival Gear]: Additionally, this survival kit includes a detachable multifunctional axe with hammer and a 2-in-1 shovel with pick, made of sturdy carbon steel. Combined with wire saw, emergency tent and blanket, rope, and compass, you can quickly set up an emergency shelter while helping retain warmth. Unlike other mini axes, our axe and shovel are 17 inches long, providing effective protection in the wild against animals or in other emergencies.
- [Convenient Packaging]: The survival gear and supplies are packed in a crossbody bag, making it easy to carry and access in emergencies. The bag features multiple compartments and molle compatible straps and D-rings, allowing you to attach extra pouches or survival tools. The crossbody strap is also detachable, making it easy to connect to a tactical survival backpack using carabiners or the molle system.
3. Analyze and rank the risks
For each credible hazard, describe a scenario and record its likely effects on patients, staff, infrastructure, supplies, information, essential services, and the surrounding community. Document existing safeguards, remaining gaps, dependencies, and the assumptions or uncertainty behind the estimate.
Prioritize hazards using both likelihood and consequences—not a hazard list alone. Explain why one risk ranks above another and consider how a disruption could affect essential care. Keep vulnerability distinct from overall risk: a vulnerability measure describes susceptibility, while a risk-based decision also needs to account for the likelihood and consequences of the event.
Use ASPR’s RISC 2.0 as a supporting assessment tool
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) describes its Risk Identification and Site Criticality (RISC) Toolkit 2.0 as a guided, data-driven resource for health care and public health organizations. Its live toolkit page, accessed in 2026, lists 34 external and 33 internal hazard categories and describes assessment of preparedness and resilience, physical security, cybersecurity, and critical dependencies. Its vulnerability score runs from 0 to 100, with a score closer to zero indicating less vulnerability. That is a tool scale—not a universal readiness grade, probability estimate, or compliance pass/fail result.
Rank #3
- 72-HOUR EMERGENCY KIT FOR 2: Built for disaster preparedness at home, work or on the road, this 2-person survival backpack includes food, water, first aid, lighting, hygiene and shelter essentials for up to 3 days.
- FOOD, WATER & PURIFICATION: Includes two 2,400-calorie emergency food bars, six 4.225 oz water pouches, water purification tablets and a 32 oz BPA-free bottle to help support hydration and nutrition during outages or evacuations.
- FIRST AID & PERSONAL PROTECTION: Packed with a 33-piece first aid kit, 2 N95 dust masks, nitrile gloves, hygiene kits, ponchos, survival blankets and tissues for added protection, sanitation and comfort during emergencies.
- POWER, LIGHTING & COMMUNICATION: Includes a hand-crank emergency power station with flashlight, AM/FM radio, siren and cell phone charging, plus 2 emergency lightsticks and a 3-in-1 whistle, compass and thermometer.
- DELUXE SURVIVAL TOOLS IN ONE BACKPACK: Adds a multi-function tool, duct tape, bio-hazard bag and emergency contact card in a portable backpack. Ideal for earthquakes, hurricanes, blackouts, wildfire evacuation, cars and workplaces.
Use RISC 2.0 alongside local hazard information, facility records, incident experience, and subject-matter input. Validate the tool’s inputs and interpret its results in context; a score cannot replace the facility’s own consequence analysis or review of applicable requirements. ASPR introduced a cybersecurity module in 2026 that scores responses against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and HHS Cybersecurity Performance Goals. ASPR describes the module as integrated with the risk assessment or usable on its own; it is a planning aid, not evidence by itself that the facility meets every cybersecurity or emergency-preparedness obligation.
4. Check whether plans and capabilities match the highest risks
Use the priorities from the risk assessment to examine each CMS program element. CMS presents the four elements below as a broad framework, while the exact requirements and review intervals vary by provider type.
| Program element | What to assess |
|---|---|
| Risk assessment and emergency planning | Does the plan address likely local hazards and care-related disruptions, identify essential capabilities, and receive the review required for this provider category? |
| Policies and procedures | Are procedures usable and connected to the identified risks, including continuity, evacuation or sheltering as applicable, resource shortages, and operational contingencies? Verify required contents and review intervals for the facility type. |
| Communication plan | Can the facility reach staff and relevant partners, coordinate patient care, and share information with public health, emergency management, and other providers consistent with applicable law? |
| Training and testing | Do personnel understand their assigned roles, and do drills or exercises test plan assumptions, communications, and coordination? Record participation, observations, corrective actions, owners, and closure evidence. |
Check whether the written plan can be carried out with available people, equipment, supplies, facilities, information systems, and partner support. For example, if a plan assumes that a service can continue during a power disruption, assess the backup arrangements and the staff actions needed to use them. A risk register that never informs procedures, communications, or exercises is not a useful readiness assessment.
Rank #4
- COMPLETE 4-PERSON DISASTER SUPPLY KIT: Built to support four people for up to 72 hours with emergency food, drinking water, first aid, shelter, lighting, hygiene and survival gear packed together in one portable backpack for fast access at home or work.
- FOOD & WATER FOR 3-DAY PREPAREDNESS: Includes four 2,400-calorie emergency food bars and four 1-liter Aqua Literz cartons, plus survival blankets, ponchos and lightsticks to help support your household during outages, evacuations and major disasters.
- FIRST AID & SAFETY ESSENTIALS: Includes a 107-piece first aid kit, safety goggles, nitrile gloves, leather work gloves, biohazard bags, hygiene supplies and an emergency whistle to help support personal protection and comfort when conditions turn chaotic.
- POWER, LIGHTING & SURVIVAL TOOLS: Hand-crank emergency power station combines flashlight, AM/FM radio, siren and cell phone charging, while a multi-function tool, duct tape and emergency lightsticks add practical support for blackouts and evacuations.
- BUILT FOR HOME, WORK & EVACUATION: Grab-and-go 4-person emergency backpack is ideal for earthquake kits, hurricane supplies, wildfire evacuation, blackout preparedness, offices, vehicles and family disaster planning when critical supplies must move fast.
5. Validate the plan through exercises and incident review
Choose exercises that test high-priority hazards, dependencies, and decisions. Set objectives in advance and arrange for evaluators to record what participants do, where coordination succeeds or fails, and what resources are missing. A tabletop can probe decisions and partner coordination; functional or full-scale exercises can test communications, movement, staffing, equipment, and partner interfaces when appropriate to the facility and its obligations.
An exercise tests selected capabilities in a particular scenario; it does not prove readiness for every emergency. Review actual incidents as well as exercises, since both may reveal outdated assumptions, unclear roles, or gaps in continuity arrangements.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsCMS’s provider-type overview summarizes hospital-specific expectations that include annual participation in a full-scale exercise and an additional exercise. Because the overview is not exhaustive regulatory text and requirements depend on provider category and current rules, hospitals should verify the applicable current requirement rather than applying that cadence to every healthcare facility.
6. Turn findings into corrective actions and reassess
After each exercise or incident review, document specific findings and assign each corrective action an owner, priority, target date, resource need, and evidence required to confirm closure. Update the relevant plan, procedure, training, communication arrangements, or resource decision when a finding calls for a change. ASPR describes preparedness as an improvement cycle: plan, organize and equip, train, exercise, evaluate and improve, then plan again.
Reassess when a major change, incident, exercise, or shift in hazards or dependencies could alter the risk picture, while also meeting the review cadence required for the facility’s provider type. Healthcare coalitions can help test cross-organization assumptions through regional planning, exercises, information sharing, and resource coordination. ASPR characterizes coalitions as regional networks supporting that work; they complement, rather than replace, facility-level planning.
Quick Recap
Which sources to use for compliance and planning
- CMS Core Emergency Preparedness Rule Elements: a concise overview of the four program elements and broad risk topics. CMS notes that requirements vary by provider type.
- CMS provider-type table: an overview of distinctions among provider categories, including hospital provisions. CMS cautions that it is not exhaustive and does not replace the regulatory text.
- Current regulations and CMS State Operations Manual Appendix Z: check the materials applicable to the facility’s named provider or supplier category, along with state and local obligations.
- ASPR RISC 2.0: a supporting way to structure site-specific hazard, vulnerability, consequence, criticality, and dependency assessment; validate its inputs and use it alongside facility-specific analysis.
- Healthcare coalitions: regional partners for testing shared assumptions, coordination, and resource dependencies across organizations.
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