Research Laboratory Emergency Preparedness

Emergencies at the School of Medicine can significantly impact research laboratories, causing important scientific advances back week, months, even years. It is critical that all labs have an emergency plan. This page has several resources that will help you in creating an actionable laboratory response plan.  If you have any questions, please contact the SoM Emergency Management Program at somemergency@stanford.edu or 650-721-6269.

The Emergency Management Program has a mass notification protocol for emergencies that directly affect SoM operations (i.e., utility outages, floods, etc.). The opt-in system is called SoMAlert and uses the existing technology behind the campus wide notification system.

AlertSU. Faculty, staff, students, and affiliates with roles and responsibilities for emergency operations are highly encouraged to sign up to receive SoMAlert.

The Emergency Management Program have developed a guidance (PDF) to assist laboratories in developing plans specific to their operations.  Every laboratory should have an emergency plan that:

• Specifies priorities and critical functions for research preparedness, response, and recovery activities.
• Identifies and delegates key personnel that would have responsibility in responding to an emergency during and after normal business hours.
• Identifies critical equipment, data, specimens, research materials and processes and develops plans to protect laboratory specific assets.
• Specifies the communication procedure during an emergency to report the situation and request assistance from the School of Medicine Department Operations Center.

The ProtectSU Seismic Restraint Program has all the information you will need about including bench-top seismic restraints in your labs.