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Mass shooting tests Las Vegas hospitals with surge of more than 400 patients

Hospital Safety Insider, October 2, 2017

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Moments after shots rang out along the iconic Las Vegas strip Sunday night, sending thousands of concertgoers scrambling for cover, the city’s hospitals sprang into action. 

Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospital treated more than 50 people across its three campuses; the city’s only Level 1 trauma center, University Medical Center, treated another 100 people; and Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center—the trauma center located closest to the strip—treated more than 175 patients, according to a statement from the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“With at least 58 people killed and more than 400 taken to area hospitals with injuries, this tragedy painfully reminds us why violence is now viewed as one of the major public health and safety issues throughout the country,” said AHA Chairman Gene Woods, MBA, MHA, FACHE, president and CEO of Carolinas HealthCare System based in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a statement. “Like all of you, my heart is heavy and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. My mind is also focused on our colleagues in Las Vegas who are working tirelessly in an overwhelming, mass casualty situation to provide life-saving support to those in need.”

Those colleagues undoubtedly faced a gruesome scene overnight. In its own statement, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center said 14 of the patients it treated had died. About 30 surgeries had been performed at the site—thus far.

“This has been an unprecedented response to an unprecedented tragedy,” Sunrise CEO Todd Sklamberg, MBA, said in the statement. “Our trauma team and all supporting nursing units, critical care areas and ancillary services are all at work this morning in the aftermath of this tragedy—and most stayed throughout the night—to help the victims and to assist their loved ones.”

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