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| Suiting up: Russ Whisenand, Paramedic, EMS Supervisor with Becky Julien, RN. |
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, several departments at Bates County Memorial Hospital coordinated to run a Highly Infectious Disease Drill for Ebola.
The scenario: the patient (Richard Evans, Respiratory Therapist) presented to ER registration with symptoms of Ebola, having traveled recently outside of the United States. Participants in the drill then ran through protocol for caring for the patient while also preventing transmission of the disease.
CMS guidelines requires hospitals to perform emergency preparedness actions, such as this drill, in order to be prepared for unexpected scenarios.
“We perform these drills in order to provide the best of care to our patients while keeping everyone involved safe in a potentially dangerous and highly infectious situation,” said Carmen Matter, RN, CIC, Infection Control Coordinator at BCMH and co-coordinator for the drill. “Our staff did a great job and worked well as a team.”
Carmen chose Ebola as the scenario because people are traveling internationally more often, and it is unusual to see it in our area. “Ebola is highly contagious, and this scenario helps us be prepared for the unexpected,” she said.
“It’s not just for us – we run drills on a regular basis so we are always ready to protect the community from any unforeseen emergency,” said Mike Behringer, RRT, Director of Respiratory Services. He’s also the Coordinator for Emergency Management at BCMH, and helped design and evaluate the drill.
Participating departments included Infection Control, Emergency Department, Emergency Management, EMS, Housekeeping, Safety, and Patient Access. ED Director Troy Trumbore and EMS Supervisor Russ Whisenand were instrumental in training their staff for these scenarios leading up to the surprise drill.
The drill took several months to plan. The hospital plans to hold future drills that expand to include additional departments.
