Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

MDH Prepares for Emergencies

TSPR'S Rich Egger

McDonough District Hospital hopes to now be better prepared to respond to an emergency.

As part of a drill, hospital staff responded to a staged scenario in which there had been a car crash because of a winter storm.  12 people were injured.

 

The Hospital’s EMS System Coordinator Dylan Ferguson organized the drill. He said it took months to prepare.

He said the staff’s perceptions of a scenario impacts what they get out of the drill. So he said he wanted to make sure it seemed believable.  

“Car accidents are something we see every day so magnifying those on a large scale makes it more realistic as opposed to if we say that two 747 were going to crash in downtown Macomb everyone is pretty much going to write off that scenario,” Ferguson said.

He said the mass casualty drill tested ambulance response time, hospital procedures, and the ability of staff to handle information and patient care.

He said there were some difficulties that arose when it came to getting information from the fake scene back to the hospital.

“Whenever you play the game of telephone there is always the possibility that things are going to get missed,” Ferguson said. “So that’s why we drill and exercise to identify those things so when it does come for real we don’t have those communication failures.”

Ferguson said communication failures are common in drills. And the hospital is working to improve communication with first responders.

MDH performs two full scale exercises each year. He said this was the first time the hospital had volunteers stand in as patients.

Emily Boyer is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.