OFFICE OF THE DEAN, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

UTMB President or his designee, the Institutional Emergency Preparedness Officer (IEPO) currently the Medical Director for Inpatient Care, or her designee, the Medical Emergency Preparedness Officer, will initiate any phase of the SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WEATHER PLAN through the Dean of Medicine.  Our role in this office is to COMMUNICATE and COORDINATE the initiation of each step to all School of Medicine areas.  It is essential that each person in our administrative office has read the SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WEATHER PLAN and understands it and our role in it.  We coordinate with the Incident Command Center in sending out weather plan communication and all pertinent information to the School of Medicine areas as hurricane season begins.  If a  weather emergency is imminent and we are entering Step I, Dean of Medicine staff will be in communication with you until all communications through Step III have been finalized.

REMEMBER:     Clinical Science Departments become hospital departments in a weather emergency.  Our only business with clinical departments during this time is to give them specific information about two areas only:

1)      Student Status

2)      Laboratory Status

• Make sure the Essential Personnel lists are updated.  If questions arise about housing, please let them know that they will be contacted by the Hospital Administration Office for further instructions.  Send (fax) an updated essential personnel list to the Institutional Command Center.
  

• The Dry Ice and Liquid Nitrogen ordering process could begin in Step 1.  Make sure Materials Management is given copies of all orders submitted by the departments.
  

• For students, release could occur in Step I, but not necessarily.  An official announcement of class dismissal for the school of medicine will be made by the Dean of the School, or her designee, when the decision is made to implement this policy. If classes are dismissed, academic areas will be informed.  School closure could happen in Step I, but not necessarily.  The institution could release students because of inclement weather or have classes dismissed and the School might remain open.  These things could happen simultaneously but it is not necessary that they do.  No students are dismissed until the time of an official announcement.

• During this step, the following things may or may not happen:

1)                  Class cancellation/School closure

2)                  Students Released

3)                  Non-Essential personnel released

4)                  Essential personnel instructed to go to Command Center for information will be identified by the orange hang badges that are given to them once they have agreed to be an E1.  These badges should be attached to their UTMB Badge

5)                  All non-hospital facilities closed

•  If all of the actions listed above in STEP II occur during that Step, it will not be necessary to initiate STEP III.  If one or more has not occurred, STEP III will be called.
  

• After the Medical School has been closed and non-essential personnel have been released and after the Incident Command Center has opened and before leaving the office, a voice mail message will be left as to the status of the weather emergency. When the weather emergency has passed and a decision has been made about UTMB re-opening, the message will be changed immediately to reflect that information.  The message will address both students and employees and it will also instruct them to check the UTMB Storm Website: http://www.utmb.edu/storm or the Off-Campus ALERT Website: http://www.utsystem.edu/utmb/alert.htm.  The UTMB Emergency Hotline at (409) 772-5378 or the UTMB TOLL-FREE number at (888) 772-5449, will also be referred to in our voice mail message. The primary radio station for broadcasts during inclement weather is KTRH 740 AM.