Area Hospitals Prep For Tornado Disaster
By: Garret Krier
Updated: April 17, 2012
Several Northwest Arkansas Hospitals are getting ready for a possibly deadly storm season. The hospitals want to sharpen how they work with each other in order to save as many lives as possible."
Picture this, several patients - show up at Northwest Medical Center bruised, broken and bleeding. A devastating twister hits Bentonville - and hospital staff now left to deal with an overload of patients.
"We are going to get you inside and get you taken care of OK, Javier? OK." Fortunately.. Tuesday's situation - just a drill so that hospital staff can be prepared for the real deal.
"The purpose of this drill is to stress the systems," said Northwest Medical Center Chief Operating Officer Michael Stewart. Stewart says the great part about Tuesdays scenario is that multiple agencies participated.
"We do drills a lot here at the hospital but we don't get a chance to interact with the whole system itself," said Stewart. Which Stewart believes makes crews faster..
"If a patient gets impaled with wood and they are having a heart attack, seconds matter!," said Stewart. Stewart says after Tuesday's situation - doctors and nurses learned communication is key.
"We could have done a better job of either making sure we have radios, cell phones, typewriters or in this day and age computers. To make sure we get the message out to the appropriate people."
This drill is conducted at least once a year by the Region 7 group.. which includes several counties, hospitals and towns. They chose this time of year so they could be at their best right before storm season hits.
Picture this, several patients - show up at Northwest Medical Center bruised, broken and bleeding. A devastating twister hits Bentonville - and hospital staff now left to deal with an overload of patients.
"We are going to get you inside and get you taken care of OK, Javier? OK." Fortunately.. Tuesday's situation - just a drill so that hospital staff can be prepared for the real deal.
"The purpose of this drill is to stress the systems," said Northwest Medical Center Chief Operating Officer Michael Stewart. Stewart says the great part about Tuesdays scenario is that multiple agencies participated.
"We do drills a lot here at the hospital but we don't get a chance to interact with the whole system itself," said Stewart. Which Stewart believes makes crews faster..
"If a patient gets impaled with wood and they are having a heart attack, seconds matter!," said Stewart. Stewart says after Tuesday's situation - doctors and nurses learned communication is key.
"We could have done a better job of either making sure we have radios, cell phones, typewriters or in this day and age computers. To make sure we get the message out to the appropriate people."
This drill is conducted at least once a year by the Region 7 group.. which includes several counties, hospitals and towns. They chose this time of year so they could be at their best right before storm season hits.
