Emergency Management Students Evaluate Comprehensive Drill

Eleven upper-level emergency management technology students took advantage of the opportunity to observe a large-scale, mass-casualty and decontamination drill on the Williamsport Regional Medical Center campus Thursday morning. Tasked with observing the response systems, victim assessment and aid procedures used by first responders, the Penn College students deployed to the incident scene, two decontamination sites and an in-hospital receiving/treatment site where they collected data. That information will be aggregated into an after-action report noting “what worked” and “what needs work” in preparing for an efficient response to a real event should one occur in the region, said Thomas A. Zimmerman, associate professor of psychology, who led a group of students through the simulation. The students were welcomed by James W. Slotterback, emergency preparedness coordinator for the Susquehanna Health System, who emphasized that the students’ valuable observations will be added to the evaluations and observations of several emergency management agencies, drill facilitators and response team leaders participating in  Thursday's exercises. Dr. Gregory R. Frailey, WRMC's medical command physician and director, also welcomed the students and explained that the drill was the next phase in a planning process that began in September. During their observation, Zimmerman said, students had the opportunity to interact with responders, security personnel, evaluators from the Pennsylvania Department of Health in Harrisburg and many others.