DHHS undertakes largest moving exercise for patients with highly infectious diseases

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is putting its capabilities for transferring patients with highly infectious diseases to the test this week with the largest patient movement exercise in the department’s history.

It is a nationwide test that will be conducted by more than 50 organizations at all levels of government and the private sector, working in concert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The goal is to move patients from where they are to regional treatment centers, in the safest manner possible. Or at least, that is what they will be simulating. Participants will manage and protect patients and ensure safe transportation as if the incident were real.

“Saving lives during crises requires preparation and training,” Dr. Robert Kadlec, HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, said. “A tremendous amount of coordination, synchronization, and skill is needed to move patients with highly infectious diseases safely. We have to protect the patients and the healthcare workers caring for those patients. This type of exercise helps ensure that everyone involved is ready for that level of complexity.”

In all, seven people will be transferred as stand-ins for patients with Ebola symptoms. They will present themselves at CHI St. Luke’s Health-The Woodlands Hospital in The Woodlands, Texas; Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina; Norman Regional Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma; St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, and St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, respectively. From there will begin sampling and diagnostic testing. Once the “positive” diagnostics are returned, isolation will be undertaken and then transfers will get underway.

The exercise will make use of mobile biocontainment units, as well as protective equipment in a ground ambulance for one pediatric case. The adult patients will end up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California; Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia; Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington; and University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, respectively. The pediatric patient will be transported to Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus in Houston, Texas.

The results of the exercise will be assessed on Thursday, April 13.