• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Add a sense of reality to your organization’s disaster drills

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, November 17, 2005

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Ambulatory Safety Monitor!

Healthcare providers at the Center for Advanced Eye Surgery in Poland, OH, sat down for a regularly scheduled staff meeting recently when a man walked through the front door of the center and left a briefcase in the middle of the floor. "Someone in the parking lot told me to bring this in here," he said before turning to leave the building.

Mary Sierra, RN, CNOR, director of the surgery center and interim administrator, said to her staff, "Okay, what do you do?"

Disoriented but ready to think on her feet, one staff member rushed to try to stop the man from leaving the building. As the events unfolded with evacuations and phone calls to 911, it was revealed that the incident was a drill.

In a recap activity hosted by assisting local police officers after the drill, the staff learned that attempting to apprehend a suspect is not safe for workers, patients, and visitors because you don't know if that person has a gun, knife, or other weapon. But had the staff member not been faced with the decision to make, she might not have learned this valuable lesson. Police went over other areas that staff handled correctly and those that they needed to improve, such as evacuating the building more quickly.

Police also quizzed staff about their observations of the suspect. Officers asked providers to describe what the person looked like.

"It was interesting. Half the people agreed, but through continued discussion, some people changed their stories based on peer pressure," Sierra says.

This activity taught staff to become more observant of their environment and to concentrate on the details of the event and not become upset by the situation.

An exercise in excitement
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Healthcare (AAAHC), Medicare, and some states mandate that ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) perform emergency drills. When Sierra's JCAHO-accredited facility started performing drills six years ago, she decided to make them fun. "We go the extra mile to keep [drills] from being dry and routine," she says. "Active participants foster better learning."

The year the disaster drill program began, it was met with resistance by staff. Staff weren't used to speaking in front of a room or organizing speakers and events, Sierra says.

"The program builds every year. Staff become comfortable with each other, and the feeling of vulnerability goes away," she says.

Tip: Don't grade staff on the projects they do. Make it a no-pressure activity. Give staff a topic and let them decide how simple or complex they want to make it.

Want to play a game?
Staff at the Center for Advanced Eye Surgery in Poland, OH, built a simple and fun tool to help with disaster preparedness. It's a Jeopardy!-style board game that is easily interchangeable for various topics.

Designate six columns for each category on a display board by making columns of six plastic pockets. Make the pockets big enough to hold notecards with category titles for the top row.

On other notecards, write questions on one side and answers on the back and slip them into the pockets, questions facing outward. You can easily change the game from infection control categories to Occupational Safety and Health Administration topics, for example. Provide buzzers or bells to staff and give prizes for correct answers. "It's a really fun way to quiz each other," Sierra says.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Ambulatory Safety Monitor!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive