EMTs, paramedics come to OTC for exercise

The darkened Room 211 in Lincoln Hall was filled with the screams of injured students, wounded in explosion set deliberately to hurt people.

Paramedics and EMTs from CoxHealth made their way through the destruction and mayhem to see who was severely injured and who could make it to a triage area set up nearby.

“Ok, ok,” someone yells above the din. “Take a break.”

The lights come on. Some of the “injured” students giggle. Others check their “wounds” to see if they need more makeup.

All were part of a day-long emergency simulation held last week at OTC to help Cox emergency personnel practice and prepare for the real thing a deadly explosion in a school room.

The OTC simulation center made its elaborate facilities available to the Cox for the exercise.

“The Simulation Center at Ozarks Technical Community College feels it is important to provide continuing education to those involved in and serve our community,” said director Michelle Howard.

“This includes our partnership with Cox Hospital.  The mock mass casualty held at OTC involved both students and Cox pre-hospital personnel.”

The “victims” were primarily OTC’s high school health occupation students. They were given the opportunity to see trained paramedics and EMTs working together to provide care for injured patients on a large scale. 

“The students saw first-hand the way these health care professionals collaborated together as a team using their leadership and effective communication skills with only a small amount of resources and in a very stressful environment.”

Mike Gooch, an adjunct instructor with OTC and a member of the Cox training personnel, said the exercise was part of ongoing training program for CoxHealth personnel.

“We provide quarterly sessions for all of the CoxHealth Pre-Hospital paramedics and EMTs that are currently assigned and work on ambulances in any of the seven counties CoxHealth provides ambulance service,” he said.  

“This simulation was used as part of the day-long training that included a lecture and a couple sessions of simulation. The simulation is used to give the realism of having patients to triage and sort the severity of injuries, to start working through the process of accounting for, treating and transporting the patients.”