Berkeley College Emergency Management Plan

Berkeley College’s Emergency Management Master Plan describes how the College will function during emergency situations. The plan contains clear strategies and roles played by the campus-based Emergency Management Team during the initial response and throughout the emergency. The plan also outlines the responsibilities of the Crisis Management Team, consisting of the College President and senior administrators. Nothing in this plan shall be construed in a manner that limits the use of good judgment and common sense in matters not foreseen or covered by the elements of the plan. Click to view the Emergency Management Plan. 

Emergency Preparedness Plan

Medical Assisting Unexpected Departure of Key Personnel

The following plan is in place to assure the continuity of educational services when key personnel within the Medical Assistant department are absent for a prolonged period.

Department Head/Program Director:

• The Dean’s office has continuous access to all programmatic documentation, which is available via the College’s SharePoint site and Program Director’s OneDrive.
• The Dean‘s office and the faculty have continuous access to all curriculum content and resources, which are available via the College’s Learning Management System (LMS) to ensure continued curriculum delivery.
• If access to the LMS is unavailable, faculty have alternate electronic access via their personal accounts with the publishers and/or hard copies of the program textbook, study guide, course exams, answer keys, resources, and competency assessment forms.
• In the event of extended internet outage, course content housed in the College’s LMS can be downloaded and viewed offline as an e-pub file by both students and faculty.
• All faculty are provided with the most recent electronic copy of the program schedule, faculty handbook, course syllabus, and faculty calendar at the start of each semester.
• Upon completion and submission of each Annual Report Form, an electronic copy of the final report along with all supporting raw data, is posted in the Department’s SharePoint, which the Dean’s office can access, to assure programmatic continuity.

Practicum Coordinator

• The Dean’s office and Career Services staff have continuous access to all Practicum documentation and records, which are housed in the College’s SharePoint and OneDrive sites. Practicum documentation includes clinical placement status and contacts to ensure awareness and continuity of schedules.
• Students’ hours and site evaluations documentation are stored in Perceptive Content, the College's document management system, which is used for scanning, archiving, and retrieving documents, as well as in the Medical Assistant Capstone and Practicum Canvas course.
• The Dean’s office, as well as the College’s Compliance Department, has copies of all signed clinical affiliation agreements for the Medical Assistant program.

Disruption of On-campus Instruction

• A full range of student support services and resources, including the Library, Academic Advisement, Office of Career Services, Student Development and Campus Life, Office of Accessibility Services, Center for Academic Success and the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, are available both on-site and online.
• In the event of a disruption to on-campus instruction, the Program will transition to virtual instruction methods that will take place in a synchronous format. This delivery format pertains to the theory portion of the core curriculum and will include video skill demonstration and simulation. Skills evaluation will be scheduled when in-person instruction can safely be resumed.
• Virtual instruction methods will be monitored for effectiveness by evaluating student progress and providing additional e-learning resources to assist students with adapting to this modality.
• Classroom and labs are equipped to hold virtual instruction via Canvas Conference, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. The College’s LMS is designed to be used for assignments, discussions, and quizzes. Secure Exam Proctor on Canvas will be utilized for all exams. The College will support the technology required. IT requests will be monitored.
• In the event of state of emergency, when students cannot participate in internship or the sites cannot accommodate interns, the method of internship may be able to be completed using software simulation or case studies based on guidance provided by the programmatic accreditors.
• If simulation and case studies are not approved as alternatives to satisfy internship requirements, affected internship assignments may delay graduation time due to internship hour requirements. The Practicum Coordinator will work with each individual clinical site to determine current availability and/or changes to schedules that may be necessary. If a site is no longer able to accommodate a student, all efforts will be made to find an alternative site in a timely manner.
• In the event graduation is delayed, the Program Director/ Practicum Coordinator will provide each student with an action plan to complete their education. All student documentation will be maintained.
• The Program will maintain documentation on how the outcomes of the Program were met during the interruption.
• Program Advisory Committee members will be made aware of changes resulting from a disruption of education.
• The Program will keep the Medical Assistant Education Review Board (MAERB) appraised of all changes related to the disruption of in-class instruction, as appropriate, and will maintain all action plans and courses of strategy for the duration of the emergency.