Missouri healthcare professionals train on mass casualty response to save lives with CDP training

More than 100 Missouri healthcare professionals traveled to Anniston, Alabama, in October to train at the Center for Domestic Preparedness and participate in the Integrated Capstone Event.

Each student was given the opportunity to take part in one of three classes — healthcare leadership for mass casualty incidents, hospital emergency response training for mass casualty incidents and the emergency medical operations for CBRNE incidents. All students then participated in the integrated capstone event as part of an effort to increase awareness of what to do in catastrophic events.

Dr. Courtney Schellpeper, an emergency medicine physician at Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, participated in the event, taking her first CDP course.

“I don’t think there is anything that can completely prepare a team to handle a mass casualty incident with 100 percent ease, but as the saying goes, ‘Practice makes perfect,’” Schellpeper said. “The CDP training was just that: A practice run for the real deal. I think all the members of the team I attended the course with would agree that the training I received will help prepare us for further trial runs at our own hospitals, as well as for an actual mass casualty incident, should one occur.”

CDP training will be available to responders again in October.