Preparing For The Worst: Mercy Drill Trains Staff For Emergencies

One of the remarkable stories to emerge from the devastating tragedy of last May's deadly tornado strike on Joplin was the fact that so many lives were likely saved even though one of the community's two hospitals suffered a direct hit.

Five patients at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin died that day, but more than 100 others were evacuated in rapid fashion, thanks in large part to a system called "Just In Time Training". That system had its first post-Joplin test at in Creve Coeur Thursday.

"If I can’t train all 6 thousand co workers here at the hospital, I can train 32 very well, they can get onto the floors and do that and that technique seems to be very effective," Jeff Hamilton, Mercy's Regional Emergency Management Director, said during a break in Thursday's drill, which saw staffers triage patients, then guide them by sled down flights of stairs. And for the first time, the stairs were navigated in the dark, since that's what happened in Joplin.

The volunteers trained in Thursday's exercise, which included medical and even office staff, can respond to an emergency scene at the hospital and within a handful of minutes, train those on site on what they've learned.

Hamilton has studied research on the training, which is especially important in the medical field which sees so much turnover in personnel. He said that at least half of Thursday's 17 volunteers had never participated in the drill.

Ken Joyce's biggest takeaway from the exercise was the ability to triage patients. It's a skill the human resources staffer hopes he never has to put into practice.

"My hope is that I can go the rest of my career at Mercy and never have to do this at all," he said.

The last Creve Coeur drill took place in April. Participants were already getting debriefed Thursday afternoon to look at lessons learned and areas for improvement.