Emergency Management Operations, Maintenance, Emergency Department hold hazardous material drill

On Wednesday, Oct. 20, Emergency Management Operations, Maintenance and the Emergency Department held a hazardous material decontamination drill outside of Adult Emergency Services.

Staff set up the tent, put on the gear and took a medical mannequin through the entire emergency decontamination process from start to finish.

Michigan Medicine Security supervisors, house managers, clinical leaders and others were invited to observe the process and learn.

This is important to practice because a hazardous material exposure is possible in every community — a tanker could crash, there could be an accident in a research lab, etc. At Michigan Medicine, it is vital that hazardous material is not tracked into the ED, contaminating the care area and creating additional exposures.  The more quickly and effectively we can get people decontaminated outside, the faster we can bring them inside and begin care.

Excellent work by everybody who was involved in the drill!