United States Department of Veterans Affairs

VA Maryland Health Care System

Prepped for Disaster

The critical care team receives “mock” patients transported from the University of Maryland Medical Center across the bridge for triage during the Freestate 2009 Emergency Preparedness Drill. 

The critical care team receives “mock” patients transported from the University of Maryland Medical Center across the bridge for triage during the Freestate 2009 Emergency Preparedness Drill.
During the drill, cafeteria space was used for triaging critical care patients from University of Maryland Medical Center. The drill enabled the VA Maryland Health Care System to test its emergency response plan. 

During the drill,  cafeteria space was used for triaging critical care patients from University of Maryland Medical Center. The drill enabled the VA Maryland Health Care System to test its emergency response plan.

October 23, 2009

An electrical fire at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) ignites and spreads quickly, prompting the facility to call the Baltimore City Fire Department. UMMC begins to evacuate its patients and thus, sparks a code green at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, its neighbor connected by a bridge over Baltimore Street. What next?

This is exactly what the UMMC, the VA Maryland Health Care System, the Baltimore City Fire and Police Departments, and a host of other federal, state, and city agencies explored during the community-wide mock emergency preparedness drill—Free State Response 2009—on Oct. 14.

During the drill―which began after 9 a.m. with the electrical mishap scenario that forced UMMC to evacuate approximately 150 “mock” patients to community hospitals via ambulance―the Baltimore VA Medical Center agreed to accept 20 - 25 critical care patients, transferred across the connecting bridge between the two facilities. Other mock patients and mock fire casualty victims were transferred to a staging area on a parking lot at Greene and Pratt Streets where they were then transported to area hospitals by ambulance. The drill also included a request to the VA Maryland Health Care System to provide UMMC with additional supplies to treat burn and trauma patients.

“We used this drill to test our disaster response and our surge capacity,” said Jeff Meddin, emergency management coordinator for the VA Maryland Health Care System. “We also participated with UMMC and the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Services System ( MIEMSS) to test the patient tracking system that will be on the Facility Resource Emergency Database or the FRED Alert System, which will be used during activation of the Baltimore VA Medical Center’s Federal Coordinating Center under the VA-DOD Memorandum of Agreement and Patient Reception Committee teams. In this mode, the VA becomes the receiving and controlling organization of injured military personnel from a major conflict or injured civilians who are evacuated from a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina or the wild fires in Southern California.”

“We also tested our internal mechanisms for activating our “All Hazards Decon Team,” accepting and triaging critical care patients from another facility, rather than the usual disaster scenario of receiving patients who come to the emergency room due to external events such as a weapons of mass destruction event,” said Sandra Marshall, MD, who served as the Acting Chief of Staff while Dorothy A. Snow, MD, chief of staff, served as Incident Center for the event.

As the nearly day-long exercise unfolded, all participants determined what aspects in their emergency response plans worked well, what didn’t work at all, what could be improved and what elements proved to be weaknesses. They were also able to better gauge the need for additional equipment or supplies.

“One of the luxuries about doing these types of drills is that we can determine how well we respond in an event in which no one gets hurt because the situation is not real,” Meddin said. “The important thing is that we plan for the various types of emergencies in advance and test the various scenarios using actual staff . . . all without compromising our primary mission of providing excellent patient care for our veterans.”

During the after action review of the event later in the afternoon, known as a Hot Wash, Snow said, “One of the major things we learned is that communications between the VA and UMMC could be improved during a disaster scenario.” Overall, the VAMHCS learned that it can respond quickly and well to any emergency and is disaster ready.