emergencydrill041312

Emergency Management Drill
Hosted in Sulphur Springs, Thursday

Photos and Report from Brent Smith

What would happen if a massive tornado hit Hopkins County, like the one that came through last week? What would happen if Memorial Hospital was hit by the tornado, like the one that was spotted near there, when a band of thunderstorms moved through a week ago, last Tuesday? Well, Memorial Hospital participated along with the NETRAC in a mock disaster Thursday, as if a tornado hit Memorial Hospital at approximately 8:AM Thursday morning. The hospital simulated a full scale evacuation of all patients to the Mobile Hospital or to Titus Regional in Mt. Pleasant. This mock disaster allowed Memorial Hospital to test their Emergency Response Plan. This was a NETRAC Full Scale Regional Exercise involving multiple counties in East Texas.

The functional exercise is an important part of the disaster response training in our local community, regional area, and State. Hospitals, EMS, Police, and Fire Departments tested critical components in the functional exercise today including emergency communications, response plans, disaster recovery, surge capacity of the 911 systems and patients. The functional exercise was part of a State drill that is required to be tested periodically throughout different regions.

Additionally Owens Sausage participated in the functional exercise by testing a hazardous materials spill and their response internally with their trained Haz-Mat team along with Sulphur Springs Fire Department and Hopkins County Fire Department Haz-Mat teams. Patients were decontaminated and transported to the Mobile Medical Unit that was established to handle patients during a facility evacuation.

The Mobile Medical Unit is a portable structure that can temporarily hold and treat 36 patients in an emergency room style setting with all the medical equipment and is staffed with paramedics, nurses, and physicians. The Mobile Medical Unit is located in our region of east texas and can respond to major disasters and is provided to our community through the North East Texas Regional Advisory Counsel on Trauma.