MOSES LAKE/WENATCHEE – Passers-by may have seen a flurry of activity at the Confluence Health Moses Lake Clinic and Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee this past Saturday as first responders and medical providers held a full-scale active shooter drill, according to a joint press release from Samaritan Healthcare and Confluence Health.

“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,” said Doug Jones, security and emergency preparedness director for Confluence Health.

The drill included participants from the Moses Lake Police Department, Moses Lake Fire Department - including EMS personnel - and staff at the Confluence clinic at 840 E Hill Ave. in Moses Lake and Central Washington Hospital at 1201 S Miller Street in Wenatchee. Volunteers acted as victims in a simulated mass casualty incident and allowed medical staff to do mock treatments of their injuries. If their simulated injuries required additional treatment that could not be handled at the Moses Lake clinic, the volunteers were transported to CWH once they were considered stabilized by exercise organizers. The goal of the training was to allow health care workers, first responders and others involved in real-life mass casualty incidents - also referred to as MCIs - to practice their responses, examine opportunities to improve those responses and prepare to ensure that such services would be provided to the community if needed.

“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.

Confluence Health security officers played the role of law enforcement officers and engaged to stop the actor playing the part of an active shooter. Once that was done, first responders arrived and did a mock triage of the volunteers playing the victims in the shooting, identifying the level of injury based on whether it would have been minor, serious or life-threatening. This practice was important to ensure triage was effective to best utilize resources in the event of a real emergency, the press release said.

The exercise also helped ensure that communication and cooperation between the various participating agencies and health care providers was efficient and smooth.

“It was especially important to work with Samarian 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,” Fletcher said.