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Top hospital administrators, emergency management personnel and Boston police participated in a successful training exercise last month. With assistance from the Boston Police Bomb Squad, the hospital enacted its incident command system for a Code White on Dec. 21 under the pretense that a bomb had been placed somewhere on the hospital campus.
“Every drill provides us with valuable experience as we work through various scenarios,” Andy Whittemore, MD, chief medical officer, said. Whittemore served as the incident commander during the Dec. 21 drill.
Sgt. Paul Ives of the Boston Police Bomb Squad was on hand to offer a police perspective on the exercise and critique BWH's response. “From a police standpoint, it's vitally important that institutions like BWH conduct training exercises because, if there is a real scenario, you will be ahead of everyone else in handling such a situation,” he said.
BWH Emergency Management Director Tom O'Regan in the Department of Emergency Medicine coordinates the hospital's disaster response preparedness. Emergency Management is now recruiting new members for the BWH Decontamination Response Team. CEUs are offered to registered nurses and EMTs when they complete training. Watch for information sessions outside the Cafeteria in coming weeks or contact your supervisor.