The first call came in at 8:02 a.m. to Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center incident command center relaying the “worst case” scenario that would quickly involve dozens of regional hospitals and agencies across East Central Florida. A major train derailment involving a large box truck carrying hazardous materials has occurred at Hwy. 520 and U.S. 1 in Cocoa.

This simulated large-scale mass-casualty preparedness exercise was coordinated by the Central Florida Disaster Medical Coalition, and supported by more than 100 partner agencies, including emergency management, schools, EMS, law enforcement, hospitals, public health, and many others.

The exercise included nearly 2,000 patient actors who were diverted to, and received by, hospitals across the East Central Florida region. They presented to hospitals with triage tags and simulated injuries. It was designed to fully stress hospital emergency rooms – testing the hospitals’ ability to handle mass casualty events. Health First’s four hospitals received a total of 350 mock patients flooding emergency departments in 2-hour time frame.  

According to Wayne Struble, Health First’s Director of Emergency Preparedness, realistic practice events like this one are designed not so much ensure jobs are done right – but rather, coordinators are looking for failures.

“As an emergency manager you want to see where we fail,” said Struble. “I don't mean fail in a bad way, but we want to see the spots where we can get better, and then we take those areas for improvement and immediately work on them. We’re always looking for opportunities to get even better.”  

BY THE NUMBERS:

• 53 East Central Florida hospitals
• 1,900+ student victim volunteers
• 9 county emergency management offices
• 20 EMS agencies
• Additional FBI agents and any other partner agencies including law enforcement

WATCH a video produced by Florida Today HERE.

READ the full story in Space Coast Daily, CLICK HERE.