The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines emergency preparedness as "a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating and taking corrective action in an effort to ensure effective coordination during incident response." This cycle is one element of a broader National Preparedness System to prevent, respond to and recover from natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other disasters.

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Healthcare, Inc. provides hospital accreditation through its National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations (NIAHO) accreditation program. DNV uses the International Organization for Standards (ISO) 9001 to guide its accreditation process, which, according to DNV, aims at identifying best practices and translating them into standard operating procedures.

All emergency preparedness standards for DNV's accreditation program focus on having a functional emergency management program. These standards involve developing and maintaining an emergency management system, conducting exercises to evaluate the system, and improving the system. Lexington Medical Center’s Department of Public Safety prepares for unforeseen events and manages risk by participating in various emergency drills and exercises throughout the year.

• Conduct quarterly emergency drills

• Provide monthly emergency management training

• Manage emergency management plan

• Manage evacuation plan

• Manage security management plan

• Conduct vulnerability assessments