A disaster exercise complete with fake injuries, ringing fire alarms and hospital visits took place Tuesday as practice for a real disaster situation.

The drill, prepared by Emory’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness (CEPAR) occurred in Alabama Hall, Asbury Circle and Emory University Hospital. It began with a fire alarm in Alabama Hall as a simulation of a real fire and ended with actor-patients in Emory Hospital to test the communications between the response systems and the patient capacity of the hospital.

“We believe that it’s important to conduct these kinds of exercises and drills so that you get some increased practice with the command and control structures,” said CEPAR Executive Director Alexander Isakov.

Approximately 30 students and actors role-played in this exercise after the fire alarm was pulled at Alabama Hall to begin the drill. Before the exercise, the actor-patients were covered in makeup to look like they ahd escaped a fire. Some were given fake burns, scratches or other types of injuries, College junior Leigh Clemmons, a volunteer in the exercise, said.

“We hired a production company to provide, basically, victims with makeup on,” Isakov said.

The drill’s goals were to exercise the crisis management structure, to test the hospital’s ability to manage a large surge of patients and to show how the incident command structures interact, Isakov said.

During the exercise, more than 30 victims, all with fake injuries sustained from the pretend fire, visited the emergency department in the triage area in a span of 15 to 20 minutes.

This disaster simulation, according to Isakov, was meant as a trial run for the hospital in which the management and staff members could practice for a real disaster situation, during which the number of patients to attend to would be significantly greater than normal.

The hospital staff responded to the actor-patients, giving them oxygen masks, checking blood pressures and tending to their fake injuries and coughs.

“The people who were coughing were given oxygen and inhalers,” Clemmons said.

After the hospital finished addressing the patient’s injuries, the exercise concluded.

Though CEPAR has not finished reviewing the responses from participants and observers, Isakov said he was satisfied with the outcome of the event.

“We were very happy with the University’s incident management system and how they were able to communicate about the crisis,” Isakov said. “We were happy with the health care system’s management structure and how they were able to communicate with the crisis and the interface between the University’s instant management and the hospital’s instant management.”

CEPAR partnered with the Emory Police Department, Facilities and Engineering, Campus Life, Health Services and the DeKalb County Fire Department, among others, to coordinate this exercise.

“We are extremely grateful for the tremendous amount of work and effort the University leaders and health care leaders invested in preparation for this exercise,” Isakov said.

Students said they enjoyed participating in the drills, which were primarily meant to prepare the emergency response services.

“It was really fun.” Clemmons said. “It was really interesting to see how [the hospital staff] responded to us.”

— Contact Christina White.