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In an emergency preparedness drill held earlier this month, more than two dozen BWHers made plans to accommodate about 200 virtual patients with a fictional form of lassa fever—an airborne virus—who presented to BWH over four days.
BWH’s response to this emergency scenario—designed by Harvard School of Public Health with area hospitals participating, including MGH, Faulkner Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Newton-Wellesley Hospital and other Partners HealthCare organizations—called for staff from the Emergency Department to set up a triage tent for patients in the 75 Francis St. driveway to screen staff, visitors and patients, with Security limiting entry and egress to only three doors.
Clinical leaders worked closely with Infection Control in devising staffing plans and protective measures for attending physicians and house staff, nurses and other clinicians, while Engineering, Materials Management and Biomedical Engineering made sure facilities and supplies were in order to accommodate the virtual influx of patients. The Blood Bank, Occupational Health, Human Resources and Pathology were crucial to the response, too.
“Dozens of staff from departments and units across the hospital came together to plan a coordinated response for this exercise,” said Barry Wante, CEM, director of Emergency Management in BWH’s Center for Emergency Preparedness. “It was one of the deepest preparedness drills we’ve held here, and we certainly learned a lot of information about how we can respond to such a crisis.”