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Friday, October 08, 2004

Hospital workers prepare for the worst

By AMYJO BROWN of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com



TOP: Good Shepherd Medical Center employees Frank Ehrman, left, and Tony Salazar practice cutting the clothes off a mannequin while dressed in protective clothing during a chemical decontamination emergency exercise Thursday in Hermiston. BOTTOM: Dean Marcun of the Oregon Department for Public Health, shows Frank Ehrman, left, the procedure for disposal of personal items before patients enter a mobile decontamination unit. Staff photo by E.J. Harris
HERMISTON — The triage nurse, dressed in a moon suit and thick rubber gloves, had difficulty with his bar-code scanner and couldn’t find a way to keep his hand-held radio nearby.

The site manager ran patients through prematurely, before the monitors were ready in the showers.

A plastic dummy patient, who was supposed to be unconscious, almost hit the ground — there weren’t enough hands to wash and maneuver him.

Yet, those monitoring the emergency drill Thursday at Good Shepherd Medical Center said they were pleased with the results. A group of about 20 staff members participated, testing a new, $70,000 trailer that would be used to decontaminate patients if deadly chemicals were released from the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

It was the first time the hospital staff had used the new equipment, which has a self-contained shower system for patients and replaces a tent that took 20 minutes to blow up and hook up.

Typically, said Ken Franz, manager of the emergency department and site manager for the drill, the trailer would take 15 minutes to set up, and each patient would be through the process in two to three minutes.

Thursday’s drill took an hour and a half, he said, and was meant to be a slow walk-through of the process to familiarize the crew with the new equipment, which included a new computer system as well.

“I’m impressed,” said Nancy Mabry, a member of the Good Shepherd Healthcare System Board of Trustees who watched the drill. “This is a great walk-through process ... they are hoping to run into a variety of problems, have discussions and solve them. I’m very confident with the process.”

Bryan Hopkins, public health emergency manager with the Oregon Department of Human Services, said he, too, was confident in the ability of the crew to respond to an event today, if they needed to.

“They looked disorganized,” he said, but if there was a real event, “the chaos would be gone. They’d just forget about the computers. If it came down to it tomorrow, they could do it.”

There are about 60 people trained at the hospital to wash patients exposed to chemicals and to dispose of the contaminated clothing and belongings.

Except for the triage nurse, none of the staff members are medical. The group is made up of maintenance people, housekeeping, accounting — even the hospital chaplain.

“The whole process is designed to shield medical people and patients from contamination,” said Rick Rice, spokesperson for the hospital.