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UNMC and hospital employees gather at the Incident Command Center for the Nov. 3 exercise drill. |
Dubbed “TERREX 2005,” the mock exercise involved an estimated 1,500 participants from local health departments, as well as state and local agencies in responding to a simulated outbreak of a wide-scale infectious disease.
Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, Nebraska’s director of Homeland Security, and other state officials including Joann Schaefer, M.D., chief medical officer, led the executive group responsible for policy decisions during an incident.
“With increased attention on the risk of an infectious disease outbreak, this exercise provides a perfect opportunity to test Nebraska’s readiness in responding to a public health emergency,” Lt. Gov. Sheehy said before the exercise. “Nebraska has been recognized as a national model in emergency preparedness and drills such as this are part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring our state is ready to respond to emergencies of all kinds.”
“This was the first activation of the joint incident command between the hospital and UNMC and provided an opportunity to exercise our roles in working together during emergency situations,” said John Hauser, lead, safety operations, The Nebraska Medical Center. “Overall, for the first time, things went very well. We have a list of things that we can work on to improve and we will be doing that immediately.”
Keith Swarts, director, UNMC/Business Services, agreed. “Each one of these drills will provide us with the tools and necessary skills to help us in the event of a real emergency,” Swarts said. “It is important that we continue to do these and increase our efficiencies.”
Mock exercises are planned in the future to address problems or situations that might arise, Swarts said. About 40 individuals from UNMC and the hospital participated in Thursday’s drill.
On Thursday, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) staged the statewide event in coordination with the Nebraska Health and Human Services System (HHSS). The exercise involved at least nine state agencies, two federal agencies, the University of Nebraska, and 19 local jurisdictions.
The scenario began earlier in the week with simulated reports of a flu-like illness in central Nebraska. By Wednesday morning the Nebraska Public Health Lab had identified the hypothetical outbreak as the pneumonic plague, and participants were briefed as the exercise became fully operational Thursday morning.
Dr. Schaefer said, “We are working to identify areas where our response plan can be strengthened should we ever face an outbreak that puts Nebraskans at risk. This exercise dealt with an illness that has symptoms similar to those associated with pandemic flu. This drill provides a good opportunity to test Nebraska’s readiness to respond to a public health emergency, now and in the future.”
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UNMC’s Del Lee, center, serves as the medical center’s incident commander for the TERREX 2005 exercise. |
Key objectives being tested as part of the exercise include: rapid confirmation of the nature of the incident; the ability to gather information and coordinate with local Health Departments, hospitals, state Emergency Medical Services, and members of the Nebraska Health Alert Network; and activation of the state Emergency Operations and Joint Information Centers.
Other agencies involved in the exercise include the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Roads, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Insurance, as well as the Nebraska State Patrol, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Nebraska Energy Office, and the Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross.
“The level of commitment our state agencies bring to Homeland Security exercises and emergency response preparation demonstrates their dedication to readiness,” said Al Berndt, assistant director of NEMA. “Nebraska is ahead of the curve and exercises such as this will ensure we remain prepared.”
NEMA plans and coordinates an annual statewide exercise with a different scenario tested each year. TERREX 2005 is the second wide-scale emergency response exercise, and is one of a series of exercises conducted on an ongoing basis. Planning for this year’s TERREX exercise began more than a year ago. Last year’s event simulated a terrorist attack on state infrastructure.