ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 10, 1996 TAG: 9602120026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON AND SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Strip
Five armed men wearing ski masks burst into an emergency room, wave their weapons around and lock several nurses in a holding room.
Sounds like a great story for the hit television series "ER."
The show's writers can call Memorial Hospital of Martinsville & Henry County, where this actually happened.
It was a scenario used for a security drill acted out in the early morning at the 150-bed hospital, managed by Quorum Health Resources Inc. of Nashville.
The exercise, on how to handle a hostage taking, is now being openly criticized, mainly because several nurses caught up in the situation thought it was real. Also, the drill was not cleared through the hospital's disaster planning committee and disrupted care, said Dr. Philip Levin, an emergency room doctor who is chairman of the department's quality assurance committee.
While the drill was under way, a 6-year-old boy suffering from asthma was turned away from the hospital, said a report that Levin is preparing for his committee. A rescue squad later went to the child's home and brought him back for treatment.
Levin said he didn't know how the newspaper got a copy of his preliminary report, but that he stood by its contents.
"Quite frankly, this is the most flagrant travesty of justice, of care, of human concern that I have ever witnessed in a hospital setting," he wrote.
"The scenario was fine, if it had been a disaster drill," Levin said. "I'm not trying to get anybody in trouble. I'm only concerned about quality of care. I still feel there was potential risk involved."
What if a police officer unaware of the drill had happened on the scene and shot one of the actors? he asked in the report. What if a nurse had had a weapon in her purse and tried to use it?
It is not unusual for hospitals to conduct mock disaster or even security drills, said Judie Snipes, senior vice president with the 14-hospital Carilion Health System, headquartered in Roanoke. Drills are required by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.
"A hostage situation can be a real concern for a hospital," said Snipes, who oversees quality assurance for Carilion.
The theory behind the Martinsville drill was correct, she said, but maybe they "just didn't do it quite right."
"Using real guns is like using real blood in a mock disaster," she said.
Friday, hospital officials who were involved in planning the drill declined comment.
Administrator Joseph Roach did not return calls to his office or his home. His office staff said he was out; his family said he was at work.
Spokeswoman Susan Reynolds said in a news release that the event was "carefully planned" and conducted with the approval of the Martinsville Police Department. But in a telephone interview, she said she had little firsthand knowledge of the drill. She learned about it the next day during a visit to Roach's office. She said the information for the news release came mostly from talks with the administrator.
"Will we have this type of drill again? Probably not," she said.
Reynolds, who is the hospital's director of human resources, said she did not know who the masked men were, but that the guns they used were not loaded.
Richmond lawyer Paul Thompson, who represents the hospital, said the hospital believes the information it released is correct. He said he can't account for the discrepancy between its statement that police approved the drill and comments from the chief that they didn't.
The Martinsville Police Department, to the chagrin of Chief Dave Edwards, did become involved.
The department was initially contacted by hospital security officers, who asked police to help with the drill.
After a meeting between hospital officials and a police representative days before the drill was scheduled, Edwards said, he decided that his department would not participate.
"We had concerns," he said. "And I told the hospital people that.
"I didn't like the thought of my people participating in a situation in an emergency room where patients were being treated."
But, just a few hours before the drill was set in motion on Jan. 25, a hospital security officer called the night supervisor at the Police Department, Edwards said.
The supervisor was told that a police officer's participation in the drill had been approved, and an officer was dispatched to the hospital.
The police officer - whom Edwards did not identify - took part in the hospital's exercise by leading an "unruly" patient into the emergency room.
The police officer then moved to another area of the hospital to watch on video cameras as the masked men - armed with real weapons - acted out a mock hostage taking, Edwards said.
Edwards said no disciplinary action will be taken against his employees.
"They did what they thought was right under the circumstances," he said. "But I will take steps to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
Three nurses who were on duty that morning are talking with a Floyd County attorney about a possible civil suit.
The nurses either could not be reached for comment or did not wish to comment when contacted Friday.
But the attorney, Jim Shortt, said the hospital's drill "goes beyond any reasonable behavior I've ever heard of."
"If I tried to explain to you what happened that morning, you'd think I was nuts," he said.
The nurses have taken a leave of absence from the hospital, he said.
"Now, when they go into work, they're jumpy and they're scared," Shortt said. "I mean, when you cry wolf once, what happens the second time?''
Shortt said the nurses were debriefed following the incident and were shown a video of the drill.
The nurses - who were praised by hospital administrators for their handling of the situation - didn't believe they were allowed to speak their minds about the drill, Shortt said.
"The hospital should apologize," he said, "and treat these nurses with respect."
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