Four hospitals, 14 emergency management and medical agencies and departments along with various long-term care facilities will participate in the regional event slated for Jan. 25.
Jeff Rascoe, health coalition coordinator with the Green River District Health Department, said this will be one of the larger tests of its kind and will give leaders insight on how well emergency management and medical staff are prepared to respond to severe-weather threats.
"The purpose of this is to increase levels of all-hazards preparedness," he said. "We want to be ready if and when such a threat arrives."
Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, Methodist Hospital-Henderson, Methodist Hospital-Union County and Ohio County Hospital will participate in the exercise, he said. Coordinators will outline specific scenarios from an emergency management command center in Owensboro and test health care institutions' abilities to recover, communicate and treat a larger number injuries. Target categories include health care system recovery, emergency operation coordination, information sharing and medical surge, he said.
Functional exercises like this one differ slightly from full-scale demonstrations that would involve actually mobilizing resources like ambulances, fire trucks or police units. Instead, Rascoe said, institutions will respond via communications command to play acting. They will be given detailed scenarios and examined on how well and how quickly they respond to them from a leadership communication standpoint.
The exercise will be conducted by the Kentucky Department of Public Health. It comes as a requirement for GRDH U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources grant funding.
Agencies were last tested on preparedness during a similar earthquake exercise in 2013.
Daviess County Emergency Management Agency Director Andy Ball confirmed that several local institutions will be participating in the exercise, including EMA, EMS and OH locations. Such tests, he said, can go a long way in readiness.
Austin Ramsey, 270-691-7302, aramsey@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @austinrramsey
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