Tripler plans mass-casualty exercise

By James Gonser
Advertiser Central Bureau

Tripler Army Medical Center will conduct a mass casualty training exercise Friday, and although the event was planned months ago, it takes on added significance since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In the pre-dawn hours Friday, ambulances and emergency vehicles will bring in dozens of "causalities" to the hospital for treatment.

Navy Capt. Dr. Richard Jeffries, deputy commander for clinical services at Tripler — the largest military medical facility in the Pacific — said the exercise helps train hospital workers to make quick decisions and become familiar with emergency techniques.

"In a mass casualty you can't do the medical care you normally do," Jeffries said. "In an automobile accident, we can focus everything on that one, two or three individuals and give them maximum care. In a mass casualty exercise, it is where the whole hospital system is overwhelmed. You start making quick decisions about where patients go and how you treat them."

Jeffries said hundreds of people on the hospital staff will take part in the exercise.

The exercise is an annual requirement for accreditation and will be monitored by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, an independent, nonprofit organization that evaluates and accredits nearly 19,000 health-care organizations and programs in the United States.

The commission provides on-site surveys of the hospital's medical and nursing care, physical condition, life-safety program, special-care units, pharmaceutical services and infection control procedures.

Margaret Tippy, Tripler pubic information officer, said the ambulances will not use lights or sirens so as not to disturb neighbors and the exercise should be finished by 7:30 a.m. so that regular patients will not be affected.

The casualty scenario is kept secret until the last minute but could include a terrorist attack, a plane crash or a chemical spill, Jeffries said.

"We continually train like this," Jeffries said. "We've got to be ready anytime. It very well may be a Sept. 11 type of incident, so you'd better be prepared all the time."