Newman Regional Health hosted a surge capacity exercise Thursday, aimed at testing how the hospital would coordinate and respond to multiple high-level medical incidents.
The surge capacity incident involved a mock-exercise involving a potential international student who may have been exposed to Ebola on a recent trip to the Dominican Republic. During the exercise, three injured patients also enter the emergency room following a serious vehicle accident. Jordan Hartman, Newman Regional Health’s Emergency Preparedness Coordinator says there are three levels of surge capacities and this one involved a surge one response.
Newman Regional Health activated its command team most recently during the July 2017 water shortage in Emporia. Hartman says the possibility always exists, noting a close call last July also when an Amtrak train carrying 220 passengers struck a cattle truck near Reading.
Lyon County Emergency Management Coordinator Jarrod Fell says exercises like this one include a lot of preparation and reiterates the importance of communication.
ESU nursing students stood in as the mock patients during Thursday’s exercise. The hospital also involved the media, setting up its public information command post in the ESU School of Nursing, as the result of a high-level emergency or disaster.
The entire response lasted four hours, with the hospital overstaffing for the exercise and Hartman says she was pleased with how smoothly things went, noting communication is always the area for improvement in these high-stress incidents.
The list of agencies participating included the 73rd Civil Support Team from the Kansas Army National Guard, KDHE, Lyon County Emergency Management, Lyon County EMS, and the Flint Hills Community Health Center.
Photos courtesy Jordan Hartman/Newman Regional Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
