11.2 Emergency Preparedness (C03) & Emergency Resources (C14)
Key Takeaways
- C03 Emergency Preparedness is a precondition requiring a risk assessment, an emergency management plan, annual plan maintenance, and occupant education and drills.
- The C03 plan must address five hazard classes: natural, fire, health, technological and human-caused.
- C03's risk assessment must establish a pathway for vulnerable occupants such as older adults, people with disabilities, pregnant women and children to confidentially identify needs they may have during an emergency.
- C03 requires practice drills annually at minimum for each high-risk hazard identified in the risk assessment, and every two years at minimum for other hazards.
- C14 Part 1 Option 1 requires at least three emergency resources, including first aid kits at least one per floor and AEDs accessible to any occupant within 3 to 4 minutes with signage identifying their locations.
11.2 Emergency Preparedness (C03) & Emergency Resources (C14)
Core Exam Takeaway: C03 Emergency Preparedness is a precondition; C14 Emergency Resources (2 pt / WELL Core 4 pt) is the optimization that equips it. Memorize C03's five hazard classes — natural, fire, health, technological, human-caused — its annual / every-two-years drill cadence, and C14's AED within 3–4 minutes and one first aid kit per floor.
Feature C03: Emergency Preparedness — Precondition
Intent: enable organizations, families and individuals to prepare and respond to diverse emergency situations. Note that the intent reaches beyond the organization to families and individuals — which is why C14 Part 1 Option 2 pays for individual and family preparedness training.
C03 Part 1 — Develop Emergency Preparedness Plan
(a) A risk assessment is undertaken addressing at minimum:
- Identify project assets (e.g., employees, facilities)
- Establish a pathway for occupants or groups who may be more vulnerable — older adults, people with disabilities, pregnant women, children — to confidentially identify specific needs they may have during an emergency
- Evaluate potential impacts of relevant hazards and identify high-risk hazards
- Determine emergency management planning priorities
(b) An emergency management plan outlining response to emergencies within the building or surrounding community, addressing at minimum five hazard classes:
| Hazard class | WELL's examples |
|---|---|
| Natural | flood, tsunami, wildfire, earthquake, heatwave |
| Fire | (its own class) |
| Health | acute medical emergency, infectious disease pandemic |
| Technological | power loss, chemical spill, explosion |
| Human-caused | civil unrest, active shooter, terrorism |
(c) The plan meets these maintenance requirements:
- Annual (at minimum) inventory and maintenance of building emergency response resources — first aid kits, automated external defibrillators (AEDs), emergency notification system, personal protective equipment — and operations capabilities such as backup power and remote management systems
- A list of specialized personnel updated annually (at minimum), including roles and contact information of the emergency response team
- The plan is reviewed and updated as needed on an annual basis and is easily accessible to all regular occupants
(d) Regular occupants are provided education and training on emergency preparedness and response, including:
- Communications about the plan and related resources, including guidance by relevant local, state, regional or global emergency response agencies such as the WHO or a government emergency management agency, annually at minimum, to employees during new employee onboarding, and during an emergency event
- Practice drills or other operations-based or discussion-based exercises conducted annually at minimum for each high-risk hazard identified in the risk assessment, and every two years at minimum for other hazards
WELL Core guidance: see the feature for applicability.
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| C03: THE DRILL CADENCE IS TIERED |
| |
| HIGH-RISK hazards (as identified in YOUR risk assessment) |
| -> drills or exercises AT LEAST ANNUALLY |
| |
| OTHER hazards |
| -> drills or exercises AT LEAST EVERY TWO YEARS |
| |
| Note that WHICH hazards are high-risk is project-specific: a coastal |
| tower drills tsunami annually, a Midwest campus drills tornado annually, |
| and each drills the other every two years. The risk assessment in |
| Part 1(a)(3) is what determines the schedule. |
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[!IMPORTANT] Requirement (a)(2) is one of WELL's most thoughtful provisions and is highly examinable. Emergency plans typically assume an average, mobile, unimpaired occupant. C03 requires a confidential pathway for vulnerable occupants to state their needs in advance — because someone who uses a wheelchair, is late in pregnancy, or has a hearing impairment cannot safely improvise an evacuation, and should not have to disclose publicly to be planned for. The confidentiality is the operative word.
[!TIP] "Discussion-based exercises" counts alongside operations-based drills, which matters for hazards that cannot be physically rehearsed — a tabletop exercise satisfies the requirement for an active-shooter or pandemic scenario where a live drill would itself be harmful.
Feature C14: Emergency Resources — Optimization (2 pt / WELL Core 4 pt)
Intent: provide resources, personnel and training to help organizations, families and individuals respond to diverse emergency situations.
C14 Part 1 — Promote Emergency Resources (1 pt / Core 2 pt)
Option 1: Emergency resources. Resources supporting emergency response, including at least three of the following six:
- (a) Information indicating emergency procedures — evacuation during fire or earthquake, containment and response for infectious disease outbreaks, shelter-in-place during active shooter — available to all guests upon entrance to the building
- (b) Building emergency notification system with auditory and visual indicators of emergency (public address systems, flashing lights)
- (c) At least one first aid kit per floor meeting the requirements of Appendix C3
- (d) AEDs accessible to any occupant within 3–4 minutes, with a routine maintenance and testing schedule. The locations of building AEDs are identified through posters, signs or other forms of communication other than on the AED itself
- (e) Undesignated epinephrine auto-injectors for food allergy emergencies
- (f) Rides subsidized by at least 50% to a destination of need for emergency situations — urgent medical needs, personal or family emergency — including from home to work as needed, for example during a public transit shutdown
Option 2: Emergency training and personnel. At least two of the following four:
- (a) Emergency response team for medical emergencies, including at least one certified medical professional (EMT, paramedic) or first responder (police, fire service, individuals certified in advanced first aid) present within the building during regular business hours
- (b) Security or crisis response team for human-caused disruptions
- (c) Annual availability to regular occupants of a certified training course on CPR, first aid and AED usage
- (d) Trainings to promote individual and family emergency preparedness available to regular occupants, addressing at least: creating evacuation or sheltering plans; building emergency kits, supplies and go-bags; and planning communications with family or primary contacts in case of emergency
C14 Part 2 — Provide Opioid Response Kit and Training (1 pt / Core 2 pt)
Option 1: Opioid response kits — provision of opioid overdose reversal capability, with accompanying training.
WELL Core guidance: whole building.
[!IMPORTANT] The AED 3–4 minute accessibility standard is a physiological deadline, not a convenience target. Survival from witnessed ventricular-fibrillation cardiac arrest falls roughly 7–10% for every minute without defibrillation, so a device reachable in three minutes and a device reachable in eight are not the same intervention. Note the accompanying rule that AED locations must be signposted by means other than the device itself — a defibrillator inside an unmarked cabinet is functionally absent during the only three minutes that matter.
[!TIP] "Undesignated" epinephrine auto-injectors in (e) is a precise legal term: stock devices not prescribed to a named individual, available for use on anyone experiencing anaphylaxis. This pairs directly with N02 Part 2's food allergy training, which requires anaphylaxis and emergency response to be covered — WELL builds the training in Nourishment and the hardware in Community.
[!TIP] C14 Part 2's opioid response kits complete a chain that runs across two concepts. M11 Part 1 Option 2 requires prescription opioid education including risks and signs of dependency; M11 Part 2 requires medication-assisted treatment; and C14 Part 2 puts overdose reversal capability and training on site. Recognizing that WELL treats opioid risk across education, treatment and emergency response is the kind of cross-concept synthesis the exam's Analysis-level questions target.
How C03 and C14 divide the work
| Question | Feature |
|---|---|
| Have we assessed risk and written a plan across five hazard classes? | C03 (precondition) |
| Have we inventoried resources annually and named the response team? | C03 Part 1(c) |
| Have we educated occupants and run drills on the right cadence? | C03 Part 1(d) |
| Do we actually have the first aid kits, AEDs, notification system, epinephrine, rides? | C14 Part 1 Option 1 |
| Do we have trained people on site and CPR/AED courses? | C14 Part 1 Option 2 |
| Can we reverse an opioid overdose? | C14 Part 2 |
Which five hazard classes must a C03 emergency management plan address?
How often must practice drills be conducted under C03 Part 1(d)?
Under C14 Part 1 Option 1, what AED requirement applies?
Which C03 requirement addresses occupants who may need specific assistance during an emergency?