(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Three hospitals in the Colorado Springs area teamed up with the FBI to hold a full-scale mock bioterrorism disaster exercise.
The exercise began at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 21, lasting until 11 a.m., and all three hospitals remained fully functional while the exercise took place.
Centura Health said the exercise was held to test the hospital and FBI’s response to a bioterrorism disaster drill, involving patients going to the emergency room at all three hospitals, with symptoms that would be commonly misdiagnosed.
“Drills like these help us focus on three areas: readiness, response, and recovery. This exercise focuses on a bioterrorism act,” said Sara Baird, Emergency Preparedness Manager at Penrose and St. Francis Hospitals. “Our goal is to observe how the Emergency Departments communicate with one another, activate Incident Command, and report to Infection Prevention and Public Health. We appreciate the FBI taking part in this exercise.”
The actual cause of the symptoms in patients during the exercise represented a mock bioterrorism (WMD) incident, where a botulinum toxin was intentionally placed in the milk supply.
