Waukesha County Simulation Provides Opportunity to Practice Emergency Response

How prepared is your municipality for an emergency? Recently, Waukesha County found out.

The Waukesha County Division of Public Health held a mock mass medication dispensation clinic, something the county would do in the event of a public health disaster like an anthrax outbreak.  In this mock scenario, time is of the essence.

“We have two days to get medication to all of Waukesha County to prevent mass fatalities in the event of an attack,” explained Julianne Klimetz, Waukesha County public relations contact, on a walk-through of the mock clinic, held at the Waukesha County Expo.

The purpose of the simulation was to practice, in real time, the response and cooperation necessary to handle this type of event as a department, county and region. The ultimate goal of the simulation is to identify strengths and weaknesses of the response, which will enable the county to refine and streamline plans in the event they are needed for a real emergency, according to Klimetz.

In this simulation, over 150 members of the public volunteered to play the role of people coming to the Expo in need of medication for their family. In the event of a medication clinic for a widespread outbreak, only one member of each family would be asked to come. Others would stay home to prevent the spread of the illness.

Each volunteer was given a different script to follow as a household representative.  One person was instructed to portray someone who was deaf; another was to act as a very sick person, and yet another was to act as if they couldn’t speak English.

The household representative was asked to fill-out the form, go to one of two screening lines depending on whether or not they had health factors that could be complicated by new medication, and then go to another line to get their medication. Someone who was able to do all those things without any scripted complications was able to get through the simulation in 10 minutes but others took longer.

One man was instructed to pretend to pass out. In other scenarios, there were fights and panics that county staff had to deal with, all things that might occur in an actual disaster.

Each participant was asked to keep track of their times in reaching each station so that the county can estimate how long it would take to medicate everyone, Klimetz said.

The simulation wasn't only for the public or public health nurses, though.

In a room off to the back, county and public health officials and law enforcement representatives from municipalities throughout the county worked at a mock command center, monitoring the situation and wrestling with difficult questions like what to do in the event of an evacuation or if our water source becomes contaminated. Police fielded simulated 911 calls in reference to the mock outbreak.