When water rushed the banks of Plum Creek and flooded the first floor of St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Dyer last August, emergency workers evacuated the hospital of staff, nearly 70 patients and had a line of ambulances ready to transport people.
Next week, they'll share that experience.
David Milen, bioterrorism disaster preparedness coordinator for the hospital, and Schererville Fire Chief Joseph Kruzan will speak in Las Vegas at a conference hosted by the World Research Group titled, "Optimizing Multi-Agency Coordination in Disaster Planning for Hospitals."
The two will give the first presentation of the day on the first day of the conference, Kruzan said.
"I think it's kind of exciting because we get the opportunity to start off this conference," he said.
They will use a PowerPoint presentation to show how the hospital worked with fire, police and EMS workers to safely evacuate the hospital. They'll talk about what they learned from it and what they could do to improve the process.
Milen will discuss the internal aspects, such as establishing incident command and using special equipment in patient evacuation, and how the hospital kept things moving to reopen 82 days later.
"We're doing this to get the information out, to make sure that people are aware this can happen to them and hopefully save lives," Milen said.
Kruzan, who was transportation commander during the evacuation, coordinated with 67 assisting agencies to get the equipment needed on site. He will talk about calling additional resources and the need for hospitals to work with their local police, fire and EMS agencies.
He hopes to illustrate the importance of planning.
"If we wouldn't have had good planning prior to this type of event, who knows what would've happened," he said. "You have to have all your tools in place. The last thing you want to do is make haste in a situation like that."
Kruzan said he's excited to represent Schererville, Lake County and Indiana at the conference, which is expected to draw emergency responders and health officials from across the country.
