MASCAL exercise tests hospital's ability to handle multiple trauma events

By Lori Newman, BAMC Public AffairsOctober 31, 2014

MASCAL 10-22-14
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MASCAL 10-22-14
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MASCAL 10-22-14
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MASCAL 10-22-14
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Brooke Army Medical Center held a mass casualty exercise Oct. 22 to test the staff's ability to handle multiple trauma events within minutes of each other.

As part of the exercise, San Antonio Military Medical Center received, triaged, and treated 47 simulated patients as they arrived from several incidents around San Antonio, to include an airline crash at San Antonio International Airport and two incidents involving a hazardous chemical.

"All of which made it necessary to stand up the hospital's Emergency Operations Center and pre-determined triage locations around the facility," explained Sgt. 1st Class George Wible Jr., emergency management noncommissioned officer.

Patients from the airline crash arrived via ambulance bus with simulated burns, broken bones and assorted lacerations. As those patients were being treated, more ambulances arrived with patients from a chemical plant explosion at a separate site.

"[The explosion] sent us patients who were exposed to a noxious agent. So we had to decontaminate them in the emergency room decontamination room and call for the hospital decontamination team to stand up," said Lt. Col. Dana Munari, chief of Nursing Services, Department of Emergency Medicine.

Taking a page from world headlines, three of the simulated patients were likely infected with the Ebola virus, testing the staff's ability to deal with that situation effectively.

"It's a very complex scenario," Munari said, noting that the exercise as a whole tested the systems throughout the hospital much more robustly than in the past.

"Overall, as with any exercise, there were certain aspects identified as requiring improvement or additional attention, all of which will certainly be taken into account as we continue to improve our plans," Wible said.

"Regardless, these shortfalls were greatly overshadowed by the overall successful response, cooperation, and teamwork displayed by participating hospital staff, particularly those operating within the Emergency Department, Patient Administration, and as part of the Decontamination Team."