Disaster drill evacuates Mount Alverno as lesson for future

WARWICK -At 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning, June 5, the alarm sounded at Mount Alverno Assisted Living Center on the Bon Secours Charity Health System’s Warwick Campus. Calls were immediately placed to all of Warwick’s emergency service organizations as the entire staff at Mount Alverno began assisting residents in a controlled evacuation. However, there was no cause for worry. The Warwick Campus, which includes St. Anthony Community Hospital and Schervier Pavilion skilled nursing facility, was merely participating with neighboring hospitals, county health and emergency management departments and other emergency service organizations in the Hudson Valley in a regional emergency preparedness drill. And this exercise included a controlled evacuation drill of Mount Alverno in conjunction with Elant and Valley View Nursing Homes in Goshen. The organizations were using a simulated prolonged heat wave to test communications procedures and the effectiveness of a regional mutual assistance agreement. The exercise included mock evacuations of several hospitals in the region. Both staff and residents at Mount Alverno were aware that a practice drill might be held but with the exception of key personnel, no one knew the exact date or time. This was to be a test of emergency planning already in place and an opportunity to evaluate and improve on those plans for the future safety of the residents. During the exercise, officials and staff members at the Warwick Healthcare Campus coordinated closely with Warwick Police and Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services including the Ambulance Corps and the Orange County Department of Health and Sheriff’s Office. Local citizens and several residents at Mount Alverno volunteered to be “pretend” patients for the Warwick Ambulance Corps. The exercise could cover any type of state or regional disaster. However, Mark Ferrari, Region II Director for the New York State Emergency Management Office, remarked that a prolonged heat wave is a credible hazard in the Hudson Valley. “The potential for heat-related illness and loss of life is very real, especially if high demand for electricity causes a power grid failure,” he said. “The 1994 heat wave that hit Chicago resulted in nearly 600 heat-related fatalities in just over a week.” Joie Ogrodnick, emergency preparedness coordinator for St. Anthony Community Hospital, explained that a coordinated response is critical when an emergency has the potential to affect the entire region. She added that it is important to provide mutual aid and to test skills, plans and communication systems to see what works and to fix what doesn’t. “We expected some glitches during this exercise,” said Ogrodnick. “And we’ll make sure any problems are corrected right away. The purpose of this test is to discover what we can do better.”