Saint Andrew's, Sub-Acute Saratoga Children's Hospital Recognized

Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church and Sub-Acute Saratoga Children's Hospital have received commendations from Mayor Chuck Page for their Oct. 20 participation in a disaster preparedness exercise.

During the Nov. 7 Saratoga City Council meeting, Page praised the hospital for serving children as a skilled nursing facility since 1989 and creating a homelike community and providing advance medical expertise for technology dependent children.

Similarly, he recognized the church for 50 years of leadership in the area of service and for its interest in the city's Community Emergency Response Team.

Emergency relief workers conducted the training using the hospital and the church as participants. 

"The hospital really cares about being ready for an emergency and tries to simulate what could really happen in a disaster," Page said in reading the commendation.

During the exercise, patients evacuated the hospital and met at the parking lot, power was eliminated to the facility to ensure the emergency power systems were tested, and the staff prepared food on portable stoves.

The hospital communicated with the Saratoga Emergency Operations Center with the help of the Saratoga Amateur Radio Association and acquired supplies to keep the facility running and the children safe, Page noted.

Saint Andrew's held two disaster exercises on that day, with one exercise for the clergy and staff with parishioners in attendance, and the other exercise for the clergy and staff with the CERT volunteers, the mayor said.