Teddy Meranti, 12, a victim, gets ready to exit the decontamination unit at North Adams Regional Hospital Tuesday afternoon during a drill of the incident command system. The annual drill involved hospital, ambulance and fire personnel. It was intended to train staff in how to handle large emergencies and work in unison with other agencies. (Gillian Jones/North Adams Transcript)
By Jennifer Huberdeau
Posted: 08/05/2009 01:12:14 AM EDT
NORTH ADAMS -- Shannon Benoit was busy preparing wrist bands and admissions intake sheets in the lobby of the North Adams Regional Hospital’s emergency department as teams around the building prepared for the arrival of 14 "victims" of a mock chlorine chemical spill and car wreck.
"Normally we’d input all of the information into the computers," Benoit said. "We’d have two laptops and two regular computers where four admissions department staff members would input critical information, while the others would be banding patients that come through from the triage nursing station." Admissions Clerk Michelle Scarpitto said the annual mock drill allows the department to assess its procedures.
"It’s absolutely worth all the work," she said. "We can tell what we’ve done right and what we did wrong." Outside, members of the North Adams Fire Department were setting up the Massachusetts Decontamination Unit, where those involved or near the scene of the "truck accident and spill" would be scrubbed down and evaluated for injuries.
"Today’s incident happened in a semi-residential area," Sharon Leary, REACH outreach and communications manager, said Tuesday as she stood nearby waiting with a number of victims. "We have a variety of injuries represented, as well as people who would have just been in the area, who may have been exposed to either a chlorine leak or inhaled the gas. In real life, these
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people would be called the ‘walking well’ -- people who aren’t critically injured but need to be checked out. They usually bring themselves to the emergency room."
Sasha Piatczyc, 23, of Williamstown, was anticipating the spray down inside of the decontamination unit.
"My character is a 18-year-old female who lived within a 1Ž2 mile of the accident, opened her door and inhaled the fumes," she said. "I get to act a little bit, because my character is coughing and feels as if she’s going to pass out."
Cousins Matthew Meranti, 12, and Teddy Meranti, 14, thought it would be fun to volunteer to play victims and take a stroll through the decontamination unit.
"It’s a good way to help out," Matthew said.
As firefighters climbed into full-length yellow decontamination jump suits, complete with taped wrists and ankles and purified air packs, Kathy Arabia, vice president of guest services for Northern Berkshire Healthcare, said the mock drill tests the hospital’s incident command system -- a chain of command created for emergency service responders following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks -- and the ability of the hospital staff to work in unison with outside agencies.
"We didn’t let the majority of our employees know about today’s drill," she said. "We wanted it to be as real as possible. These annual drills allow us to test the time it takes to set up the decontamination unit, how well we can respond to the critical care patients and what our response time is overall." She added, "We’re measuring ourselves and critiquing our response through on-site evaluators and even with an evaluation by the victims."
Firefighter David Simon said the annual drill is critical to keep the department "on its toes."
"Like anything else you do, you learn by repetition," he said. "If we keep this stuff packed away and don’t use it, our skills will get rusty. Another big part of this is the teamwork, working with departments outside of our own. There’s a lot of logistical stuff that goes on and a lot of different people involved."
As the drill began, there seemed to be some confusion at the decontamination unit, as hospital staff pushed the victims through the unit several times because of errors being made during the scrubbing process.
"This is why we practice," Leary said.
The three departments jointly responded to a mass casualty accident in July 2006, when 10 people were exposed to chlorine gas at the Northern Berkshire YMCA. No one was critically injured during the accidental exposure.
To reach Jennifer Huberdeau, e-mail jhuberdeau@thetranscript.com.
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