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Christian Village staff review proper evacuation procedures in mock drill

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[October 18, 2017]  On Monday afternoon, staff from Christian Village gathered in the dining room at 100 Hall for an important exercise in patient safety.

The group made up of on duty staff, plus many who had come in to work just for this exercise, began the day by hearing a brief orientation presented by Administrator Jo Hilliard.

During that period of time, some of the key information shared with staff included the procedure for a manned fire watch. Hilliard explained that if there were an occurrence where that the facilities sophisticated fire alert system failed to work, key staff would be chosen to perform fire watch. This would include constant monitoring of the building, with a “round” made every 15 minutes checking all rooms, and opening all locked doors, inspecting the interior and moving on throughout the building. Hilliard said that during a fire watch the person designated as responsible would perform no other tasks, regardless of the request from co-workers. She stressed to the staff that this was a vitally important responsibility, and no fire watch person should allow themselves to become distracted from their duty.

Hilliard concluded saying that she or the next in command would be the ones to determine when to declare a fire watch. She said there were specific criteria when this was called for, and administration would make that call.

Hilliard went through the contents of a special fire watch kit, put together in an insulated rolling cooler. She said every hall or division of the facility would have such a kit. The kit would include special procedures to follow, placards to be placed on doors notifying everyone that a fire watch was underway. Supplies that would be needed in a power failure and much more.

Hilliard then moved on to discuss the med cart and procedures should the building suffer a prolonged power outage. She explained how to deal with the computers if the buildings main system were inoperable.

Hilliard then quickly moved on to the exercise of the day. She noted that in the room there were many staff members. If an actual emergency were to occur, there would be far fewer on hand, so each person would have to focus on the task at hand. She also spoke to those who might not be on duty saying, “If you know there is an emergency, don’t wait for us to call you, just come, we will need your help.” The Tuesday drill was a simulation of a tornado hit. Hilliard told staff that if they were not on duty, when they come for the real thing, to bring their families, so they would know everyone was safe. She said the facility would make accommodations for families to be safe and close by.

On this day, the scenario was that a tornado had hit 100 Hall, but the congregate area had been spared. Staff would be moving all residents to the congregate living building, where the safe meeting spot would be in the dining area on the ground floor.

Staff would be working to move patients and urgent supplies, there would be staff on the congregate side helping to check in patients and there would be individuals responsible for accounting for all the patients in a given area. There would also be staff who were runners, going back and forth until everyone was safe, staff who would be outside watching the perimeter of the building to assure frightened residents did not try to evacuate themselves into harm’s way, and staff who would stay with the evacuated residents.

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In the practice run, residents had volunteered to participate and there were also other volunteers who came to help out. The object was to evacuate the building regardless of the mobility of the residents. For the exercise some were self-propelled, some could move with the assistance of walkers or canes, and some where wheelchair bound.

The drill also included moving one “resident” in a bed. For that drill, no actual resident was used. Chaplain Ryan Edgecombe took the position on the bed while staff members very quickly trotted him from 100 Hall to the congregate living dining area.


Once inside the dining area, staff wrote the name of each resident on pieces of duct tape and put it on the patient’s shoulder. Hilliard had explained earlier that it had to be assumed that no one would be returning to the damaged building. Therefore, residents would have to be relocated. Having that name on their shoulder would be vitally important to the resident’s future well-being.

Though Hilliard had warned that the drill would be fast and somewhat chaotic and confusing, from the outside looking in, it appeared that everything went very well. When the drill was finished, certain staff were designated to stay with the residents while they enjoyed a light snack, while other staff were directed to return to the dining room at 100 Hall for a debriefing. There they would discuss what had just happened, what went well, and what could have gone better.

Today’s drill was just one of several in the future. The state of Illinois has recently mandated that extended care and nursing facilities conduct such drills on a regular basis.

[Nila Smith]

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