July 24 drill will test emergency response

City
Article Last Updated: 07/17/2008 10:19:07 AM EDT


Thursday, July 17
PITTSFIELD — The three hospitals in Berkshire County, in collaboration with several emergency service providers at the local and state level, will hold an emergency operations drill later this month in Pittsfield.
The drill will be conducted Thursday, July 24, at Reid Middle School in Pittsfield. It is designed to test the response to a major event that results in numerous injuries, requiring a large-scale response and the resources of several emergency-service providers in the region.

Participants in the drill include Berkshire Medical Center, Fairview Hospital, North Adams Regional Hospital, the Pittsfield Fire and Police departments, the Berkshire County Sheriff's Department, Massachusetts State Police, local ambulance services, the Berkshire County boards of health, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and other emergency service organizations. The drill will take place during the daylight hours.

The drill will simulate an incident causing dozens of injuries, resulting in a mass response and numerous mock-injured being transported to or reporting on their own to the three hospitals. This will not impact the normal operations of the hospitals or fire or police departments, but visitors to the hospitals and hospital patients may see an increase in activity.

The drill is an important tool for the hospitals and other emergency responders to assess the response to an actual incident, should it



occur, and helps these various agencies to better serve the community.