Lessons learned from terror drill too real
The fake terror drill that left staff traumatized and the hospital facing a state investigation was a "very painful lesson," says Chief Operations Officer Teressa Conley, RN, MBA, MSN, EA, at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, NV.
An investigation after the drill determined that the Code Silver drill violated a number of the hospital's policies and procedures. The reason soon became clear the EOC committee had become too insulated from hospital administration, too powerful, and had been given too much autonomy.
"A small cohesive group made this decision, acting with the best intentions," she says. "Clearly, when you look back on it, they did not consider the input of others who should have been participating in those decisions; they didn't utilize the appropriate communications channels; and they didn't follow our policies and procedures."
Code Silver drills will continue at St. Rose, but not in the same way. The hospital revamped its policies and procedures on drills to reinforce some of the rules that were violated and to add new safeguards. A primary goal was to ensure that anyone near the drill will know it is only a drill, Conley says. No more striving for realism.
To that end, hospital policy now requires that drills include prominent signage indicating a drill is in progress, and the drill observers must have signage, such as a vest, stating that the incident is only a drill. Policies were strengthened to underscore that all drills must be announced as such over the public address system, and that the units involved in the drill will be warned ahead of time. The clinicians involved have the ability to postpone the drill if, when the time arrives, they determine that they are too busy or that patient care would be compromised in some way.
Also, the Code Silver drills were not to include a real firearm as was used in the ICU drill.
Perhaps most importantly, the hospital's drill policies now state that anyone participating in a drill has the authority to call the drill to an immediate stop, Conley says. Employees are educated that a drill should be terminated if it goes awry in any way, such as people entering the scene unexpectedly and not realizing a drill is under way, a patient care emergency, or anything else that seems wrong to them.
"We can't have drills so realistic that no one will speak up and do the right thing," Conley says. "We want them to feel confident that if something is obviously wrong, that this isn't a safe drill anymore, you can stop it."
The fake terror drill that left staff traumatized and the hospital facing a state investigation was a "very painful lesson," says Chief Operations Officer Teressa Conley, RN, MBA, MSN, EA, at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, NV.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content. TESTING
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