The White Falcon - 30.07.1993, Blaðsíða 5

Hospital staff drills, sharpens response times
Story and photos by
J03 (SW) Andreas Walter
The solitude inside the air terminal
was shattered as dozens of hospital
corpsmen and security personnel
rushed in.
Doors were thrown open, mass
casualty boxes were brought from a
storage room and the scene took cm
all the qualities of a field hospital.
Orders punched through the air,
moving the uniformed personnel
about in a robotic fashion.
The visual impact was dramatic,
yet was not cause for alarm. The staff
at U. S. Naval Hospital, Keflavik, in
conjunction with NAS Security, was
holding a mass casualty drill.
“Weperform these drills four times
a year, two of these are announced.
The purpose is to drill the mass casu-
alty response teams. In this instance,
thescenarioresembledacivilian dis- Amidst shouted orders, slamming doors and an air of urgency, the disaster victims are transferred
aster. We had 13 patients involved in from an ambulance to the stretchers inside the Air Terminal, where hospital personnel awaited them.
a scaffolding collapse at the A. T. Mahan High School,” said ENS Mi-
chael T. Wright, Disaster Preparedness Officer at the hospital.
Minutes after the emergency equipment was in place, an ambulance
pulled up, disgorging litter-bound casualties. The workers sprung into
action, tending to the wounded.
According to LT Paul DeSimone, the hospital’s Director for Admini-
stration, confusion was minimized since the on-scene teams had stabi-
lized, evaluated and prioritized the patients at the high school.
The Air Terminal, a simulated triage unit, became an organized flow
of activity as the accident victims received their due care.
Within an hour, the needed care had been rendered, and the equipment
was restowed, ready to tend to real-life victims in the event of a disaster.
The hospital personnel involved in the exercise later gathered to
discuss the outcome of
the event. “I felt the drill
proved to be a valuable
experience for all in-
volved and succeeded in
bringing to light a few
variables that needed to
be streamlined,” re-
marked HN Chad Mor-
gan, Hospital Corpman.
Hospital hours to change
HM3 Michelle Dough-
erty (left) andHM3 Den-
ise Strezeletski (right)
record vital signs for
one of the accident vic-
tims.
The Naval Hospital will be participat-
ing in the Northern Viking exercise. As
a result, the Outpatient Department and
Pharmacy will be closed from 4 p.m.
Aug 3 - 7:30 a.m. Aug 6, for routine ap-
pointments. Emergency ambulance
services and inpatient ward services will
be available. The Acute Care Clinic will
maintain its normal 24 hour a day opera-
tion. For emergency ambulance service,
please dial 100. Few Acute Care Clinic,
call 3300. The Naval Hospital would
like to apologize for any inconvenience
this training may cause. Thank you for
your cooperation and understanding.
July 30,1993
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