Community health agencies conduct disaster drill

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By DAVID CAMPHOUSE

According to a release provided by Illini Community Hospital, if and when a disaster strikes, local residents can feel confident in their local healthcare organizations to be prepared thanks to the continuous training and preparation of the organizations.

On Thursday, Sept. 29, organizations, including Illini Community Hospital, Pittsfield Fire Department, Pike County Ambulance, Pittsfield Police Department and Air Evac, conducted a full-scale mock community response exercise at Illini Community Hospital.

“The scenario for the exercise included an exposure by eleven individuals to a hazardous substance, requiring triage and treatment from on-scene emergency medical personnel, along with decontamination and treatment of patients at Illini Community Hospital’s Emergency Department,” said Melissa Helkey, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator at Illini.

According to Pike County EMS Chief Kasey Kendall, this exercise was an important professional development opportunity for his staff and all other participating agencies.

“To my knowledge this was the only mass disaster drill to be conducted in the recent past,” Kendall said. “It was a great opportunity for my staff and the fire department. It’s rare that something like this would occur, but it’s always a possibility. We need to be prepared.”

Illini Community Hospital Administrator Kathy Hull also said that professional development activities such as last week’s drill are critical for ensuring public safety in the event of a rare disaster.

“These exercises ensure that all community health personnel are prepared in the event of an emergency,” Hull said. “We thank our community health partners for taking part in this exercise and for all that they do each day to protect the well-being of our friends and neighbors in our communities.”

Kendall said – while the drill went well for the most part – it also exposed some weaknesses in Pike County’s ability to respond to a disaster.

“Overall, it went really smoothly,” Kendall said. “We transported most of the patients by ambulance and a couple were transported by air. It seemed like the hospital was taking the patients in pretty smoothly.”

According to Kendall, in order to best respond to a disaster event, Pike County can use more medically trained personnel – both on his staff and on the rosters of Pike County’s volunteer fire departments.

“From the ambulance service side, our biggest issue was low staffing levels,” Kendall said. “We need more medically trained staff at the scene.”

Kendall said that Pike County EMS has two trucks and four ambulance service employees on the job at any given time. Kendall also said that the service is fully staffed with six EMTs and six paramedics.

Kendall indicated that it would be helpful in the event of a disaster to have more volunteer fire department members trained to perform triage services and medical care.

“I’m wanting to see if there is some sort of training we can offer to the volunteer departments to help,” Kendall said. “That would be basic ‘stop the bleed’ and triage knowledge.”

According to Kendall, he hopes training exercises such as this one can become a regular occurrence in order to provide better preparation for first responder and better protection to the public.

“We have good leadership at the hospital,” Kendall said. “I’m optimistic this is something we could do annually. It’s a way to identify our weaknesses, build on our strengths, and get better.”