Regional Disaster Drill

Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, the Borough HazMat Team, and LifeMed participated in a drill this morning at the hospital with great success. Simulating a LifeMed helicopter crash,“victims” were treated for a variety of mock injuries availing staff to practice immediate fire response, decontamination, and triage of patients. The Borough HazMat Team deployed two outdoor decontamination units, and the hospital created a decontamination station in the ambulance bay to practice protecting a number of injured people, in this case, victims doused with jet fuel.

The drill was designed to test hospital staff not actively working or involved in patient care, redirecting these staff members to the crash victims. LifeMed employees who were on-call watched their off duty coworkers participate in the event.

This was the third annual drill Mat-Su Regional Medical Center has conducted. Disaster drills are beneficial on many levels; meeting other agency staff members this way helps employees know who to go to in true emergencies. They also allow staff to get familiar with caches of emergency supplies that are usually stored out of sight.