Page 8 - Fall 2019 Castle MD

AH Castle participates in Mass Casualty Exercise
By Richard Kirchner, Director of Facilities Services
On July 24, Adventist Health Castle wrapped up another successful Mass Casualty Exercise. Recent events have demonstrated that we must maintain readiness for such an event.
The situation for this exercise was an explosion on a cruise ship. The hospital response was tested by 24 who role-played the injured and 10 who role-played family members of the injured. The injured were airlifted to O‘ahu, where Hawai‘i Healthcare Emergency Management set up a mobile command post and distributed the injured to area hospitals from Barber’s Point air field. Anomalies included deliberately incorrect triage tags and one person who had radioactive contamination on their body. The radiation was detected by our monitors that monitor trash leaving the hospital through the back door by the auditorium.
The timing of the notification gave us an hour to prepare before the injured started to arrive. Our response comprised of five major nodes:
• The incident command center in the boardroom
• The Emergency Department for the “Red” casualties
• An outside arrival point and sorting station
• The “Yellow” station in the Pikake room and the “Greens” or walking wounded in the Maile Room, and finally
• The patient family assistance branch which was set up in the ‘Ohana room
Another important station was the “Labor Pool,” which is where all available associates should go to be assigned as needed.
8 · FALL ‘19