Disaster exercise tests medical group response

Published May 12, 2011
By Steve Pivnick
81st Medical Group Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- When "Ultimate Caduceus 2011" kicks off Monday, the scenario will be a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that strikes the New Madrid seismic zone northwest of Memphis, triggering a magnitude 7.7 event in the Wabash Valley seismic zone. The "disaster" results in 2,300 fatalities and 56,000 casualties, 1,200 with critical injuries.

Robert Tash, Keesler's National Disaster Medical System Federal Coordinating Center Emergency Management Area coordinator, explained, "Ultimate Caduceus 2011 was developed to bring together federal, state, local and tribal jurisdictions to improve communication and establish future joint operating procedures to respond to a weapons of mass destruction or a mass-casualty event requiring field response and evacuation of patients from areas that have been overwhelmed by casualties. This exercise will test the ability to immediately move critical patients to areas with available medical care within one to four hours of being injured."

He continued, "This exercise will utilize current operational and medical concepts of operations used by federal entities in emergency medical operations to enhance patient decontamination and emergency medical care functions within local jurisdictions. Annual exercises are conducted by various entities to meet individual organizational requirements, but a coordinated effort on the scale of this national level exercise is seldom undertaken."

Mr. Tash, who's assigned to the 81st Medical Support Squadron readiness flight, said among the main participants in the major training event are the National Capital Region; Federal Emergency Management Agency Regions IV, V, VI and VII; the eight central U.S. Earthquake Consortium member states (Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri); and other supporting states.

"The exercise is designed to build upon lessons learned from prior events," Mr. Tash said. "Federal, state and local response units will be deployed. Keesler has been designated as an aerial port of debarkation, or APOD, for casualties and patient movement. Keesler will activate the NDMS FCC and a patient reception area once the mission assignment has been issued. Our FCC will coordinate patient reception and routing to the South Mississippi NDMS-participating partner hospitals as deemed necessary."

Mr. Tash noted key elements in the exercise will include the movement and actions of response personnel, equipment availability and familiarization with its use and determining equipment and supply needs for a patient reception event.

Keesler's participation in the weeklong exercise is limited to Wednesday.

Thirty-five mannequins representing patients will be airlifted by a C-130 Hercules aircraft to the Keesler APOD. The aircraft will be parked next to the PRA, located in Hangar Four, where the mannequins will be replaced by more than 50 live "patients." Once the patients have been processed by the PRA, they'll be transported to area hospitals by ground or a "Life Flight" helicopter provided by Acadian Ambulance/Air Service. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter from their Mobile, Ala., Air Training Center is also scheduled to participate.

Mr. Tash said, "The exercise's primary objective is to evaluate whether federal, state and local plans and procedures to execute emergency plans are adequate and feasible in a patient evacuation scenario. In addition, it will provide training and experience for officials who would play key roles in managing and coordinating patient reception operations. UC11 may also identify issues, policies, resource needs and potential problem areas that could negatively impact an actual patient reception event, resulting in modifications to plans and procedures."

He added the exercise offers participants the opportunity "to conduct operations that unite multiple agencies, each with different goals and objectives, at various levels of complexity and size under a joint concept of operations. It will also test the use of two mass casualty patient tracking programs (TRAC2ES and JPATS) from the reception site to the medical care facility."

Finally, UC11 will gauge the 81st MDG FCC's ability to establish a patient reception area and coordinate patient evacuation and movement to area NDMS hospitals.

In addition to the 81st MDG, other participants include elements of the 81st Training Wing, U.S. Coast Guard Search & Rescue (Mobile), Biloxi Veterans Administration Medical Center, American Medical Response, Acadian Ambulance and Air Service, American Red Cross and The Salvation Army of South Mississippi.

Among the participating NDMS hospitals in south Mississippi are the Biloxi VA Medical Center, 81st MDG Hospital, Biloxi Regional Medical Center, Singing River Hospital, Ocean Springs Hospital, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, Garden Park Medical Center and Hancock County Medical Center. Each hospital will accept casualties based on their needs to meet training requirements.