Mass casualty incident drill conducted at MountainView Hospital with community partners

A multi-agency/facility task force in Las Vegas/Southern Nevada came together to simulate a mass causality incident at a water treatment plant on the valley’s northwest side of town. The emergency response and triage exercise then moved to MountainView Hospital.

The MountainView Hospital Paramedic Institute, along with the Sunrise Health Graduate Medical Education (GME) Consortium and MountainView Hospital organized and led this exercise with the help of first responders.

The goals of the event were to train paramedic students and emergency medicine GME residents, while testing the capabilities of local first responder agencies and the hospital in a large-scale event.

The exercise at the water treatment facility simulated a hazmat scenario before moving to MountainView Hospital for triage and decontamination. Simulated patients (played by volunteers and local students) arrived via private vehicle and ambulance. This second part of the event took place with the hospital area command, set up by Las Vegas Fire & Rescue. They practiced procedures for patient care in the event of a large-scale influx of patients.

“We take the safety of our community very seriously and train on a variety of scenarios, including mass casualty incidents,” said MountainView Hospital Paramedic institute director Troy Tuke. “Bringing together a multitude of agencies over several sites to create a real-world scenario helps us understand how we can continue to improve our processes so that we are always ready.”

Tuke said drilling not just the local agencies and hospitals, but including GME residents and paramedic students is important.

“In these types of drills everyone is learning, testing the system and seeing what we can do better,” Tuke said. “Including our students and residents gives them experience in a safe environment so that when they are needed in the field, they have that background and confidence to effectively respond to an event.”

Agencies involved included:

• Amplus Academy Charter School EMT program
• AMR/MedicWest
• Clark County Fire Department
• Community Ambulance
• EMS Training Center of Southern Nevada
• Guardian Elite Medical Service
• Henderson Fire
• Las Vegas Fire & Rescue
• Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
• MountainView Hospital
• MountainView Hospital Paramedic Institute
• North Las Vegas Fire
• Sunrise Health Graduate Medical Education Consortium