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All hospitals, health centers, and posts, according to their rank within the structure of the national health system, should have an emergency plan. The structure of the plan is closely related to the importance and rank of each hospital and the role it plays in the national health program, based on its size, the area it serves, and the disaster-prone area.

In disaster planning, consideration should be given to the periods of alert, impact, emergency, rehabilitation, and reconstruction; however, while some disasters may have an alert period lasting days or possibly even weeks, that is not the time the medical care center should begin to develop a plan for managing a possible disaster; such plans should be conceived, studied, and rehearsed before the disaster occurs.