On Tuesday, the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital presented a surprise mock drill to staff to ready them for a disaster scenario.
In this case, a plane had done an emergency landing on Highway 11.
Nearly two dozen mock patients with varying medical conditions and severity of injuries were transported to the hospital where the triage team worked to quickly assess and direct the wounded to the various treatment areas that were mobilized by the response teams.
“At the time of the drill, the hospital was busy with patients and I commend our teams for their excellent response, and for effectively managing the additional activity associated with the drill as well as normal hospital operations and patient care,” said CEO Natalie Bubela, in a news release.
The exercise involved community emergency responders from Muskoka Paramedic Services, Muskoka Victim Services and Bracebridge OPP, as well as local students who role-played as disaster victims.
An Emergency Operations Centre was initiated to coordinate the response and a Family Centre was also established where discharged patients would be reunited with their loved ones. The exercise ran for about two hours while the hospital continued to operate.
Emergency preparedness experts from partner facilities and the North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN participated as observers to evaluate the response and identify areas for improvement.
For all participating agencies, a lot was learned.
“Participating in the Code Orange emergency simulation exercise helped us to test our plans, clarify inter-agency roles and responsibilities, and assess our capacity to respond to a mass casualty incident,” said Kelly Magnusson, Emergency Management Program Manager at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
“We would also like to thank our greater community and our patients and visitors for their understanding as we completed this important training exercise,” adds Bubela.
