The Central Florida Disaster Medical Coalition (CFDMC) serves healthcare organizations in Florida’s Region 5 with the mission of developing and promoting healthcare emergency preparedness and response capabilities. It facilitates collaboration between its members and partners and provides resources in order to help members be more resilient in the face of myriad disasters.
The region is especially prone to hurricanes, being along the east-central Florida coastline, so nearly every year, some member organizations must evacuate. At the same time, power outages and generator failures, among other issues unrelated to natural disasters, cause evacuations and continuity of operations plan (COOP) activations.
Continuity of operations planning is one of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ emergency preparedness requirements for many healthcare organizations. However, many communi