Northwest Hospital Takes Part in Drill to Prepare in Case Disaster Strikes

Northwest Hospital recently took part in a disaster drill to ensure that the hospital is prepared to respond to any situations that require evacuations. It was part of the 2014 Maryland Region III Health and Medical Taskforce Electronic Patient Tracking Functional Exercise.

The goals for Northwest Hospital were to demonstrate the ability of staff members to implement evacuation procedures, to see how electronic patient tracking software functions during a major emergency and to assess how certain communications work with outside partners.

In addition to Northwest Hospital, nine other area hospitals, including Sinai Hospital, took part in the state coordinated drill. The scenario of the exercise was that a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the region, causing power outages, widespread damage to roads and injuries.

As part of the drill, Northwest Hospital called an emergency alert, set up a command center and evacuated several real patients in elevators. At the same time, several people acting as patients were taken down dark stairwells in special chairs using only headlamps for light, as though the earthquake knocked out power in the hospital.

Employees then took all of the “patients” to a “triage” location and kept track of their conditions, records and medications.

“Our hospital took part in this exercise to help us determine what procedures we already have in place that work well and what opportunities there are for updating existing processes,” said Ericka Gray Wylie, MBA, coordinator of Emergency Management at Northwest Hospital.

Representatives from the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, Maryland Emergency Management Agency, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, among others, were onsite at the hospital.

There will be post-drill assessments among the hospitals and the state. This exercise is the third of four phases.

Northwest Hospital and Sinai are part of LifeBridge Health, one of the largest, most comprehensive health systems in Maryland. LifeBridge Health also includes Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital, Courtland Gardens Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, and other subsidiaries and affiliates.