Mock disaster to provide training opportunity at Union Hospital

LYNN – Union Hospital will look and sound like a disaster zone Wednesday morning but hospital and public safety workers hope the reality of an unforeseen emergency will not overlap with a planned disaster response drill.Union and Salem Hospital employees will run an emergency preparedness drill from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. simulating their responses to a mock crash involving a heavy truck loaded with asbestos and a school bus carrying three-dozen passengers.Police, fire and emergency medical units will all respond to this incident, making the event resemble as much of an actual emergency as possible. Portable decontamination units will be set up at both hospitals, where patients’ injuries will be assessed and they will be treated.”All hospital inpatient, outpatient and emergency services will operate normally,” said Pamela Fox, North Shore Medical Center’s director of Infection Control. “The disaster drill is performed so that NSMC staff and local police and fire departments can rehearse working together in the event of injuries associated with a crash and chemical exposure.”