Emergency Preparedness Drill
Banner employees, Sheri Thomson and Paul Reimer discuss options during emergency drill
WORLAND, Wyo. (June 2, 2009) -- Would you know what to do if a tornado happened? What about an electrical outage or a hostage situation?
Washakie Medical Center employees do. Our team recently went through emergency-preparedness drills designed to improve our reactions to different disaster scenarios.
The team met to work through a “Tornado” Tabletop exercise that added a little “Loss of Electricity” then tossed it all together with a “Hostage Situation” in the Emergency department. The team was not stumped!
All predicaments thrown at them were solved efficiency and with excellence in patient care.
The team of decision makers were chosen by Washakie Medical Center Emergency Management Committee to provide the facility with leadership and informed decision making.
The team discussed needs that included staffing by the Operations and Planning Section, supplies and food by the Logistics Section, alternate patient care areas, an employee rest area, childcare areas as well as provisions for pet care were all discussed.
In addition, the state of Wyoming has provided hospitals with the WARN system that includes updated bed capacity reports, e-mail and phone notification of disasters and a volunteer registry of nurses and physicians in Wyoming. Classes for this program were provided recently by Merit Thomas and Sheryl Carnahan from the Wyoming Department of Health.
Washakie Medical Center can also use Washakie County EOC (Emergency Operations Center) for outside coordination issues. This would include emergency communication (ham radio capability), food and additional resources such as tents and cots.
Washakie Medical Center employees participating were: Margie Molitor , Nan Sutherland, Mark Schlattmann, Evonne Charles, Toni Ray, Gina Hunt, Joan Christensen, Jerry Clipp, Jennifer Montgomery, Nancy Zierolf, Helen Kern, Amy Vyvey, JoDell Gleason and Connie Hoffman.
The next disaster drill is in October and will involve the community and we will be receiving patients for decontamination following a chemical spill.
About Washakie Medical Center
Washakie Medical Center is a 25-bed critical access care hospital. Services include: outpatient treatment and specialty clinic radiography and fluoroscopy suite, laboratory, an emergency room, updated semi-private and private patient rooms, a rehabilitation center, an operating room and ambulatory surgery service.
About Banner Health
Banner Health is one of the largest, nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns or manages 22 acute-care hospitals, long-term care centers and an array of other services including family clinics, home care services, a nursing registry and home medical equipment services in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. To learn more about Banner Health, go to www.bannerhealth.com.
