An ER plan, short for emergency response plan (sometimes called an emergency action plan), is a documented set of procedures that tells people exactly what to do when a crisis hits. These plans exist at every scale: workplaces use them to guide evacuations, families use them to reunite after disasters, and individuals use them to manage life-threatening health conditions like severe allergies or asthma. The common thread is preparation before an emergency so that decisions don’t have to be made in the chaos of one.
Workplace Emergency Action Plans
Federal workplace safety law requires employers to have a written emergency action plan whenever any OSHA standard calls for one. The plan must be kept on-site and available for any employee to review. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees can communicate the plan verbally instead of in writing, but larger operations need documentation.
At minimum, a workplace emergency action plan must cover six elements:
- Reporting procedures for fires or other emergencies
- Evacuation procedures, including the type of evacuation and specific exit route assignments
- Critical operations procedures for employees who need to stay behind briefly to shut down essential equipment before evacuating
- Headcount procedures to account for every employee after an evacuation
- Rescue and medical procedures for employees assigned those duties
- Contact information listing the name or job title of people employees can reach for questions about the plan
Employers also need to maintain an alarm system with a distinct signal for each type of emergency, and they must designate and train specific employees to help guide a safe evacuation. Every covered employee must be walked through the plan when they’re first hired, whenever their responsibilities under the plan change, and whenever the plan itself is updated.
Family and Household Emergency Plans
A household emergency plan focuses on how your family will communicate, where you’ll meet, and what you’ll take with you if a disaster forces you from your home. FEMA recommends a three-step framework: collect contact information for every household member, share copies of that information with everyone, and practice communicating through multiple methods (phone calls, texts, email, social media) so you’re not relying on a single channel that might go down.
The physical side of a family plan centers on a go-bag or survival kit. The American Red Cross recommends stocking at least three days’ worth of supplies for an evacuation and two weeks’ worth if you’re sheltering at home. The essentials include one gallon of water per person per day, non-perishable food, a flashlight, extra batteries, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, a first aid kit, a seven-day supply of medications, copies of personal documents (passports, insurance policies, birth certificates, medication lists), a charged cell phone with backup chargers, extra cash, and a map of your area.
Beyond the basics, tailor the kit to your household. That might mean baby formula and diapers, pet food and a carrier, extra hearing-aid batteries, or games to keep children occupied during a long wait. If your region is prone to specific hazards like wildfires or hurricanes, add N95 masks, rain gear, plastic sheeting, duct tape, and work gloves.
Medical Emergency Plans for Chronic Conditions
In healthcare, an ER plan often refers to a personal action plan for managing a condition that can suddenly become dangerous. These are common for asthma, severe food allergies, diabetes, and seizure disorders.
Asthma Action Plans
Asthma action plans use a green-yellow-red zone system. In the green zone, you feel well and take your daily controller medications as prescribed, using rescue medication only as needed before exercise or if mild symptoms pop up. The yellow zone kicks in when symptoms appear: coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, or chest tightness. You take your rescue medication every four hours, continue green-zone medicines, and may add or change controller medications per your doctor’s instructions. If yellow-zone symptoms last more than 24 hours or worsen, you move to the red zone.
The red zone means breathing is hard and fast, ribs are visibly pulling in with each breath, or it’s difficult to walk, talk, or sleep. You take rescue medication immediately, and if there’s no rapid improvement, you call 911. Any time you hit the red zone, your doctor should be notified.
Allergy Emergency Plans
For severe food allergies, an emergency plan spells out the specific symptoms that require epinephrine and a 911 call. Anaphylaxis can cause the airways to constrict, a swollen throat that makes breathing difficult, a dangerous drop in blood pressure, rapid pulse, and dizziness or loss of consciousness. These symptoms can escalate within minutes, so the plan’s value is removing hesitation: if you see these signs, you act.
Mental Health Crisis Plans
A psychiatric advance directive, or PAD, is an emergency plan for mental health. It has two parts: an advance instruction document and a healthcare power of attorney. You create it while you’re well so that your preferences are legally recorded if a crisis leaves you unable to communicate.
The advance instruction section lets you document which symptoms you typically experience during a crisis, which medications help and which you refuse, which hospitals you prefer (and which you want to avoid), your emergency contacts, known crisis triggers, and protective factors that help you stay stable. You can also include practical instructions, like who should care for your children or pets and whether your employer should be notified.
The healthcare power of attorney names a trusted person as your agent. That person can access your medical records, consent to or refuse treatment on your behalf, authorize admission to a psychiatric facility, and approve or decline specific treatments. Choosing the right agent and discussing your preferences with them in advance is what makes the document functional rather than symbolic.
Advance Directives and End-of-Life Plans
Advance directives overlap with emergency plans but serve a different legal function. A living will tells doctors how you want to be treated if you can’t make your own decisions about emergency care. A durable power of attorney for healthcare names someone to make those decisions for you. Both are legal documents that only activate when you’re unable to communicate.
For people who are near the end of life or critically ill, POLST and MOLST forms go a step further. These are actual medical orders, not just preference documents, which means paramedics and ER staff can act on them immediately without waiting for legal review. They’re typically created in conversation with your physician when specific life-sustaining treatment decisions are likely to come up soon.
How to Build an Effective Plan
Regardless of the type, useful emergency plans share a few qualities. They name specific people and their roles. They describe concrete actions rather than vague goals. They’re accessible to everyone who needs them, whether that’s a laminated card on the refrigerator, a document in a workplace binder, or a form in your medical record. And they get reviewed regularly, not just written once and forgotten.
Start by identifying the most likely emergencies you face. For a workplace, that might be fire, severe weather, or an active threat. For a family, it depends on geography: earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, or power outages. For a chronic health condition, it’s the specific symptoms that signal danger. Build your plan around those scenarios, share it with everyone involved, and practice it at least once a year. A plan that nobody remembers is the same as no plan at all.