Moses Lake Active Shooter Exercise

On Saturday, October 8th, Confluence Health partnered with Samaritan Healthcare and regional partners to hold a full-scale active shooter exercise in Moses Lake.

For the exercise, a simulated active shooter threat was addressed at the Confluence Health Moses Lake Campus. Local first responders, including Moses Lake fire, police, and EMS departments, all participated in the exercise which involved a simulated mass casualty incident where volunteers played the role of injured patients first taken to Samaritan Hospital to be stabilized and, if needed, transported to other regional hospitals.

“Full-scale exercises are an important part of our emergency preparedness cycle as we continually strive to provide a safe and secure environment for our valued patients, staff, and providers,” commented Doug Jones, security and emergency preparedness director for Confluence Health. “Additionally, partnering with other local regional health care systems and first responders allows for unique insights into how we function together, allowing us to improve and coordinate better.”

The exercise allowed healthcare workers, first responders, and others involved in such real-life incidents to practice and discover areas to improve.

“This was a great exercise that allowed Samaritan to activate its Emergency Operations Plan and identify opportunities for improvement in the event we were to see an actual mass casualty event in our region,” reflected Matt Davis, plant services director for Samaritan Healthcare.

“While we hope the training will never need to be used in any real scenario, our job is to be prepared for whatever might occur and this exercise helps us to continue to provide the kind of excellence our communities deserve,” continued Jones.

The exercise went well. First responders quickly arrived on the scene to triage the “patients” based on the severity of their injuries: green for those who needed care but were in no danger, yellow for those who needed immediate help but were stable, and red for those who had life-threatening injuries. In a real scenario, these decisions ensure available resources can best serve patient needs promptly and appropriately.

“While we learned about areas where we can make our response even better, I was pleased with the professional and excellent response of all of our medical staff and the work of local first responders,” said Gregg Fletcher, director of Grant County at Confluence Health and one of those leading the unified command on-site to handle the exercise. “It was especially important to work with Samaritan Healthcare as a unified front during this exercise since this continuous collaboration would be vital in a real incident which would require all the different facilities working in unison to provide the care our community needs.”