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The Paper | Thursday, June 11, 2015
Emergency disaster drill focuses on coordination
Communication between hospitals, EMS, law enforcement and district health officials eyed Regional staff
Preparedness in the event of an emergency was the purpose behind the June 2 exercise conducted in south Hall and Gainesville and focused on communication between emergency medical services, local law enforcement, two hospital locations and others working the scenario of two tornadoes touching down in Flowery Branch and Gainesville. The weather emergency was coming on the heels of a flu pandemic already under way. The drill was the first full-scale drill for Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton, with the operation in the works since October. Around 35 to 40 volunteer actors were at the South Hall hospital while in Gainesville, the emergency loading area at Northeast Georgia Medical Center was stuffed to the gills with nurses and doctors assisting fake triage patients in the disaster drill. “Over the weekend, we already had a flu outbreak,” said Sean Couch, Northeast Georgia Medical Center public relations manager, as he walked through rows of stretchers for fake patients. Because of the fake pandemic flu, the Gainesville hospital campus already had a high census of fake patients before the storms hit. The fake tornado trauma victims moved through surgery and eventual discharge. “They went through the entire system. It’s not just hitting the emergency room and then they’re like, ‘OK. Get up. We’re done’,” said Jennifer Davis, emergency preparedness manager for
Northeast Georgia Health System. “We did get to see today that Braselton really stood up and they took those critical patients and they were able to do surgeries and improvise, because they knew we couldn’t handle as much as we normally can,” Davis said. In advance of the scenario which involved a drill of response to tornado touchdowns which damaged property and caused death and injuries at Flowery Branch High School and surrounding areas, volunteers were readied to play the part of victims who would be assessed by emergency responders and transported for treatment at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton or other facilities. More than 50 volunteer actors participated at the Gainesville hospital campus while in moulage, the makeup to appear as if injured. School-age children and adults appeared to be impaled, while others nursed fake broken bones and lacerations. For the Braselton campus drill, Martin Bett sustained a compound fracture to his lower leg after volunteer coordinators worked their magic to create realistic injuries on the volunteer patients. Alexia Tatuta and her mother Melanie were also volunteers who victims who were given information about the type of injuries they had so they could communicate with the emergency personnel participating in the drill. Naomi Coroama was among the patients suffering from broken bones. Once the patients were
made up, they were taken to Flowery Branch High by driver Randall Kersh who made three trips with 10, then seven and then four patients who would be join other players in the scenario. Outside the school building, patients with different levels of injuries were evaluated and then loaded for transport. Some patients came to the hospital by ambulance while others represented the walking wounded who made their way into the Emergency Department. From the incident command center, orders and information was being disseminated to the emergency crews and the health care providers involved in the scenario preparation. Arriving in the ED, patients were greeted by staffers who obtained vital information and notified the triage nurse. While the patients waited, they were comforted by chaplains, Father Bob Fessler and Father Tom Mustard, both who live in the Village at Deaton Creek and volunteered on the Gainesville hospital campus before the Braselton hospital opened on April 1. The drill was the first emergency preparedness exercise held at the new hospital. Both Fessler and Mustard were involved in the Day in the Life scenario training which occurred before the hospital opened its doors to patients. James Dumas, who coordinates the chaplain corps, oversaw the connections made with patients and families. Fessler and Mustard reassured Chelsea Newberry, who came in with an ankle injury sustained in the tornado, and Rae Chu, who also came into the ED for treat-
LeAnne Akin The Paper
Firefighters checked on victims of the tornado scenario outside Flowery Branch High. ment. When it was announced that patients were en route to the ED, a nurse rallied other staffers together and said, “Get ready for some teamwork.” Hall County EMS delivered Mandy Glade to the ED and Dr. Jordan assessed the patient who needed blood after an artery was nearly severed during the tornado’s impact. The operating room was notified to ready for Glade’s arrival. “The reason we do drills
and exercises is we want to identify areas of improvement in training versus when the real situation occurs,” said Hall County Deputy Fire Chief Chad Black. For those in the area, however, the drill may seem like a bad memory. “Some of us who have been here remember back not too many years ago when that exact situation happened in different locations and we had multiple injuries and multiple fatalities in the West Hall area up to North Hall,” Black said.
The tornado incident was in 1998, where 12 people died and caused $15 million in damages. The communication was key for medical units on the ground, Black said, to know where to route patients affected across Hall County. “Even though the medical center is a large hospital and a trauma center, they can only treat so many,” he said. “It’s no good to take a critical patient there that you don’t have doctors and nurses to take care of them.”
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In the Emergency Department, patients were assessed and directed to surgery as needed.
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