Hospital conducts disaster drill

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Staff members at a local hospital want to be prepared for anything that comes their way. Tuesday morning, Sisters Hospital conducted a natural disaster drill. Every department was a part of the drill because they wanted to make sure everyone is prepared in case disaster strikes.

Imagine a bomb went off at a local grocery store and droves of people were injured, urgently needing immediate attention. That’s the situation officials are running through at Sister’s Hospital in Buffalo.

“We are going to be testing emergency services handling an influx of patients with various injuries and we want to make sure that our systems that are in place work right now,” said Manager of Public Relations at Sisters Hospital Ann Schlifke.

While emergency responders are rending to real patients in the hospital, others on staff are running through the mass-casualty drill.

Schlifke said, “All of our staff on every flood and every unit is going to be participating in the drill.”

Twenty-six area students were the patients. They were prepped then filed into the Emergency Department with a variety of ailments. They ranged from head and leg injuries to a heroin addict going through withdrawal.

“It will help the community because we will be that much more prepared to handle a situation like this,” said Schlifke.

Nurse Manager Jeanette Hughes said, “It refreshes my staff’s memory on what they need to do in case of a disaster.”

While the crews were in crisis mode, observers evaluated how everything was handled, so in the end they will assess what worked and what didn’t.

A disaster drill also took place at St. Joseph’s Campus. Both hospitals took part in the drill just in case a mass casualty takes place and both hospitals are occupied.