Texas Children’s Hospital in partnership with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, University of Texas Police at Houston, Montgomery County Hospital District, Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Houston Police Department conducted two active shooter exercises on March 3 and then an active shooter exercise followed by a mass casualty exercise on March 10. The exercises were conducted in the Emergency Center, lobby and cafeteria of the hospital, which will open its doors to the public on April 11.
“I think these are critical exercises to undertake and am proud to see Texas Children’s Hospital performing these,” said Dr. Jennifer Arnold, medical director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Pediatric Simulation Center. “The opportunity to identify system flaws before a real life threatening emergency occurs is priceless.”
View photos from the exercises below.
The scenario for one of the exercises was of a disgruntled family member of a deceased patient seeking retribution on the Emergency Center physician. A police officer dressed in normal clothes and carrying a plastic training weapon played the shooter and 25 employees from across the Texas Children’s system played either an employee, patient, or family member.
The purpose of the exercise was to test Texas Children’s emergency notification procedures, staff training for response to an active shooter (Run, Hide, Fight), and to give our law enforcement partners a chance to practice their tactical response to an active shooter in our new building.
“As nurses we enter the profession to provide care to others and in these situations there is a pivotal moment where you must place yourself first to ensure safety,” said Tarra Kerr, director of nursing for Texas Children’s Hospital Emergency Center. “This is hard to do and we must continue these training opportunities to prepare, and more importantly create an avenue to have open dialogue about these prevalent issues.”
The second exercise involved an active shooter exercise in the cafeteria and common areas of the hospital, followed by a mass casualty incident and medical surge exercise in the Emergency Center using 20 young people volunteering to be patients and dressed in Moulage or simulated injuries using special effects makeup.
According to various participants, the exercises were very successful and lessons learned will allow staff to improve Texas Children’s emergency plans for an active shooter event, improve our emergency notification processes, and improve our staff training.
“While I hope to never encounter a scenario such as an active shooter on site, this drill certainly gave me and my colleagues the skills to be prepared for and to survive this terrible and hopefully exceedingly rare event,” said Dr. Joseph Allen, medical director of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands Emergency Center.
