Seattle successfully tests emergency response policy

Can local public health providers can handle a major earthquake, pandemic flu, or some other really big disaster? The Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes that King County, Washington, says it is ready.

Health officials, who have been developing a disaster plan for two years, tested its rapid emergency health care center Tuesday at Exhibition Hall in Seattle Center. In a few hours, they set up more than 100 cots with doctors and medics evaluating a flow of pretend patients with dizziness, dementia, chest pains and other faked ailments. “We live in a very vulnerable area. The windstorm (of 2006) taught us that,” said Michael Loehr, preparedness director of Public Health — Seattle & King County. He said public health officials wanted to be able to set up a “scaled-down hospital” in a few hours that could evaluate more than 200 patients and provide such services as IV hydration and wound treatment.

Until Tuesday, Loehr did not know whether the county and its many local emergency partners could pull it off. There were logistics, staffing, communication, flow and equipment to test out. His assessment when it was done: “We can actually do this.”