Naval Hospital Bremerton Prepares for Pandemic in 3-Day Drill
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS060728-15
Release Date: 7/28/2006 1:03:00 PM
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Fletcher Gibson, Naval Hospital Bremerton Public Affairs
BREMERTON, Wash. (NNS) -- Naval Hospital Bremerton concluded a three-day pandemic flu drill July 20 designed to test the process for receiving patients after the outbreak of an infectious illness.
The scenario played out for a few hours each day from July 18 to July 20 and involved an outbreak of human-transmitted avian flu.
“Avian flu has been in the public mind lately,” said Cmdr. Robert Morash, the chairman for the hospital’s Disaster Preparedness Committee and coordinator for the drill. “A lot of hospitals around the world have been preparing for that event.”
While the avian flu was the infection Morash chose for the scenario, he said the main purpose of the drill was to test the admissions and screening process.
“We wanted to look primarily at what happens in the first 72 hours,” he said.
The drill began with a staff member playing the part of a patient who arrives at the emergency room with flu symptoms. According to the drill plan, the staff would learn of four other cases of avian flu in Washington and the hospital would begin gearing up for a possible pandemic. Over the next two days, increasing numbers of simulated patients would come through the hospital’s gates to be assessed and admitted. On the final day, nearly 25 staff members would be involved in screening the 15 incoming “patients” and admitting the truly ill.
The increasing number of simulated patients arriving at the gate represents not only the spread of the illness, but also the general response from a worried public.
“When this kind of news hits the public, more people are going to start showing up,” said Tom Shirk, the hospital’s infection control coordinator, “either the ‘worried well’ or the actual ill.”
Separating these two groups was one of the main focuses of the drill and involved corpsmen standing by at the gate to assess incoming patients. Using specific screening criteria developed by the hospital’s Pandemic Flu Planning Committee, these corpsmen were able to determine who needed immediate admission and who needed further screening at the triage room set up to receive them. They could also identify the “worried well” who weren’t sick but merely concerned about the outbreak. This would help keep admissions flowing smoothly in the case of a real pandemic.
“We’re going to have so many people who will need to be admitted, we’ll have to be selective,” said Morash.
At the end of the third day, Morash had already identified those aspects that worked as planned and those areas that needed reworking. The screening tools, for example, worked perfectly, but they discovered some space issues when they tried tending to a dozen patients at once in the triage room they’d designated, Morash said.
He and his team also discovered some difficulties they hadn’t even considered. Heat stress became a factor during the drill for the staff members wearing their protective gowns and masks. Morash said they will be making plans for ensuring the staff can keep hydrated in a way that limits infection from the patients.
The lessons learned from this drill will be applied to an even larger pandemic drill Morash is planning for October. Although still only in early planning, he hopes to involve up to 25 casualties and possibly involve Navy Region Northwest Emergency Management.
For related news, visit the Naval Hospital Bremerton Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/nhb/.
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