Chatham-Kent Health Alliance wants to be Ready Should Disaster Strike

It all seems so easy on television… disaster strikes, the ambulances arrive on scene and then at the hospital, and hospital staff and physicians start working together to care for the wounded. I can assure you that having everyone at the ready should tragedy occur is anything but easy. It takes thought, countless hours of planning and practice to make sure that we are ready for our community should some sort of external disaster occur.

On July 7th, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) conducted an external disaster exercise on the river side of CKHA to test our “Code Orange” processes.

What is Code Orange? – Code Orange is what would be called should catastrophe strike, making it necessary for CKHA to care for many more patients than it would expect to have at any given time. Essentially, a Code Orange is called when there is an unanticipated event in the community that requires additional resources (staff) to be brought in to staff the Emergency Department or other affected units within the hospital. Involved in the event were Chatham-Kent Fire Department, Chatham-Kent Police Services, and SunParlour Emergency Medical Services as well as Med Quest students. The event tested the Emergency Department’s ability to respond to multiple victims. It also tested CKHA’s system to notify staff of a Code Orange and to begin the process of identifying available resources to support the event.

The scenario consisted of a single car accident, and there were 10 victims (played by Med Quest students) requiring medical care. Fire, Police and Ambulance were on the scene to help the students through their roles. Switchboard and all units were involved.

I would like to thank all those who were involved in planning and executing the “Mock Code Orange”. This is one way that CKHA works to ensure we are ready to answer the call should disaster strike our community.