County-wide disaster drill Friday in Murray

Published 6:35 pm Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Murray Medical Center will host Murray County’s annual disaster drill on Friday. Participants include the hospital, city and county fire departments, Murray County Emergency Services and 911. The county performs these drills annually to prepare for emergencies outside the scope of everyday emergency planning.

“We feel that certain situations are best planned for by actually executing a emergency crisis under drill circumstances,” said Michelle Vandergriff, manager of the medical center’s Emergency Department. “Our hospital has increased its capability to take care of critical patients substantially in recent years, and we feel these drills provide great opportunities to educate both our staff as well as other community organizations about the importance of emergency preparedness planning.”

In recent years the hospital has participated in drills portraying multiple out-of-the-ordinary emergency situations including a plane crash as well as a flu pandemic.

“We feel that there is a need in this county for all emergency personnel to understand what the correct steps are to take in regards to a atypical emergency situation,” Vandergriff added. “The hospital is excited about participating as the host location for this year’s drill.”

The scenario will focus on fire and evacuation training in case of an oxygen fire inside the hospital building. The drill will be carried out with live actors from Murray County High School playing the patients in the evacuation, and will take place sometime in the late morning and will finish shortly after lunch time.

John Holt is public relations coordinator for the hospital.

“Although planning and executing a drill like this in the community can be great for training both our employees as well as the employees of surrounding county agencies, there may be concerned citizens who drive by the hospital during the drill and see all of the emergency vehicles in the vicinity,” he said. “We encourage people in the community who see emergency vehicles or hear sirens during the late morning hours to keep in mind that this is only a drill. Actual patients recovering in our facility will be located in patient rooms away from the drill in order to provide a proper environment for healing.”

Observations from the drill will be studied by managers and administrators from the hospital as well as all service organizations involved, Holt said.

“One of our missions at Murray Medical is to be proactive about the health and safety of both our community and our patients,” said Vandergriff. “We feel that by executing these drills we are building a safer Murray County for tomorrow.”