IWK Health Nova Scotia Emergency Preparedness Response Exercise

This past weekend, IWK Health tested its emergency preparedness with a large-scale simulation of a Code Orange response, a hospital-wide protocol for managing mass casualty events.

Our exercise?  An outdoor concert where the stage, lighting, and sound system collapsed, leading to traumatic injuries from the collapse and crush injuries from the crowd trying to escape, resulting in about 60 simulated patients (actors and medical manikins) that had to be cared for.

As a hospital with over 3000 clinical and support staff, we tend to work within our usual groups, where we know everyone. In a large-scale disaster, like the one we exercised on Saturday, about 400 people were involved. Half of them were community and family volunteers who “acted” as our patients and families. The other half were clinical and support staff. 

With so many in our workforce, not everyone knows everyone who works at IWK Health. How do you know who’s a doc and who’s a ward aide, or who’s a nurse and who’s a respiratory therapist? To reduce confusion, we took the identification concepts used in incident command and emergency management systems and decided we would standardize coloured vests for each group involved (ED command staff, nurses, pharmacists, doctors, RT’s, unit aides, registration folks; everyone had a colour vest reflecting their role).  In addition, we added vests for people working in our Family Information Support Centre (FISC) where we work on reunification of families separated during an emergency and our Psychological First Aid Centre, where uninjured and lightly injured folks can receive referrals to health system and community supports.

The outcome? At a glance, you could tell who was in the room, even with the number of casualties, staff, and others. "The vests worked." The large role name on the back, a smaller role name on the chest, and the IWK Logo made it easier to identify staff, even in large crowds.

Even better, they are truly adjustable to “one size fits all. “Everyone from our smallest staff member to our tallest (about 6’6”) could adjust the vests for comfort. 

Thanks to the folks at FAST, we now know who’s who (by role) when we have to activate our emergency plans.

 

• Visit our blog to learn more: The Ultimate Guide to Incident Command Identification Vests