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Disaster drill tests local emergency plan
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Posing as an injured victim,
Javen Baker is “evaluated” by
LifeCare Medical Center staff as
part of a disaster drill that
involved over 150 Roseau County
first responders. Also pictured
are Mary Dieter, EMT; Outpatient
Manager Stacey Monkman, RN; and
David Beaudry, EMT. |
If practice makes
perfect, then Roseau County is one
step closer to a foolproof plan in
the event of a large scale
emergency, following a recent mock
disaster exercise.
Over 150 Roseau County first
responders and LifeCare Medical
Center staff participated in a
disaster drill on Tuesday, May 13 by
responding to a mock anhydrous spill
at the Cenex West Plant in Roseau.
According to Gracia Nelson, Roseau
County Homeland Security and
Emergency Manager, “All agencies did
an excellent job of responding and
implementing the systems that have
been set in place to deal with
emergency situations within Roseau
County.”
First responders demonstrated their
skills and completed anhydrous spill
incident training during the
exercise. This included working on
incident command, controlling the
vapors, and shutting down the source
of the leak.
To make the exercise seem more
realistic, seven student volunteers
from Roseau School posed as burn
victims at the scene. Using make-up
and synthetic “wounds” the students
were made to look as though they had
real burns, bruises, and broken
bones, thus making reactions,
triage, and treatment more
realistic.
First responders quickly began
treatment of the “injured” at the
scene before transporting them to
LifeCare Medical Center, where the
staff was awaiting its own emergency
drill by receiving multiple
“patients” at once.
In total, more than 75 LifeCare
employees participated in the mock
situation, which also tested the
local HEICS (Hospital Emergency |
Incident Command
System) plan.
“This is a nationwide plan that
allows for similar strategy in case
of emergencies at hospitals and
healthcare facilities across the
country,” explains Curt Ireland, EMS
Director at LifeCare.
In an actual large scale emergency,
members from any medical facility in
the country would have the skills
necessary to assist in implementing
a HEICS plan which would help in
maintaining order during a time of
potential confusion.
Ireland was pleased with the
decision to test the county’s HEICS
plan, which in many ways played out
instinctively during the 2002 Roseau
flood that forced an evacuation of
nursing home and hospital
inpatients.
“Even though we must be ready for
emergencies every day, exercises
like this are important to help us
prepare for unusual or large scale
disaster situations,” said Ireland.
Nelson noted that testing the plan
provided new information to consider
for future HEICS plan activation.
“As with any drill, we all reacted,
learned and will make changes to
help protect and care for the people
of our community,” she said.
Participating in the drill were the
Roseau Fire Department, LifeCare
Medical Center, LifeCare Medical
Care EMS, Roseau Police Department,
Roseau County Sheriff’s Department,
Sheriff’s Posse, Public Health and
Emergency Management, Warroad
Rescue, Greenbush Police Department,
Greater Northwest EMS, Polaris
Industries, Farmers Union Oil, and
the Roseau School.
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