By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A two-day mass casualty exercise involving Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, Reno County EMS, the Hutchinson Fire Department and other entities ended Wednesday.
The second day of the drill saw those very entities enter the next phase of the exercise by establishing a command center. Representatives from all facets of the drill including Evergy, law enforcement and Public Works were given various scenarios over a two-hour period dealing with a mass casualty event, in this case a major earthquake.
It included outside response, dealing with triage and rescue from collapsed structures, mass infrastructure failure and coordinating outside agencies to assist. On the hospital side, it was a chance to test the internal workings including how patients move through the hospital in such emergencies and dealing with fatalities.
The agencies involved were not told about what was going to be thrown at them, so they had to address issues moment-to-moment.
Following the exercise, the county public information officers issued a press statement and then let Eagle Media and Hutch Post ask questions about each department as if it were an actual press conference.
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