Telluride Med Center & Fire District: Disaster Practice

19 Jun Telluride Med Center & Fire District: Disaster Practice

The Telluride Medical Center and Fire Protection District simulate a mass casualty incident

Dr. Diana Koelliker, Medical Director of Emergency Services & Telluride EMS Director

Dr. Diana Koelliker, medical director of Emergency and Trauma Services of the Telluride Medical Center (TMC) hangs up the phone. She’s just arranged two helicopters to be at the Telluride Medical Center in 20 and 45 minutes respectively.

Down the hall TMC staff place calls to nearby Elks Lodge and Ah Haa Art School. They’ll need the extra space right away for makeshift triage centers.

Through the emergency doors, paramedics rush moulaged patients on stretchers towards the waiting doctors and nurses.

That’s right, fake horribly injured actors simulating injuries for the purpose of training Emergency Response Teams and TMC personnel.

Remember, this is just a drill. It’s called a Mass Casualty Incident drill, and it’s designed to prepare staff, test procedures and mimic the real deal.

The scenario: A crashed airplane at the Telluride airport with fire and EMS activated to rescue the six survivors and address the dead on the scene. The victims are being transported in waves to the Medical Center.

“This drill is to see how our protocol that we have in place to deal with such an incident, truly works,” said Dr. Koelliker.

All hands are on deck.

“From our front desk to our primary care and our Emergency Room staff,” said Dr. Koelliker.

A Mass Casualty Incident, according to Koelliker, constitutes any emergency situation that outstrips the immediate resources of the facility.

And Mass Casualty Incidents do happen.

“We’ve had mass incidents before. A few winters ago a van rolled over with eight people in it. All were transported here during a snowstorm,” said Dr. Koelliker.

The exercise included Telluride’s Emergency Medical Services and the Telluride Fire Protection District’s EMS division.

“It’s always a value to have a multi agency training and exercise our emergency plans and develop them so we stay sharp with our response models,” said Telluride Fire Protection District Chief John Bennett.

“These incidents teach us how to tweak our system and then we do these kinds of exercises to test it,” she said just before running to the bedside of the newest actor to come through the Emergency Room Door.

TMC is the region’s only 24-hour emergency care and a Level V Trauma Center. The Telluride Hospital District, TMC’s governing body, is currently working towards securing a future home for the region’s medical center in Mountain Village.