Hospital to Hold Emergency Drill

March 5, 2015

Helen Hayes hospital will conduct a “Code Silver: Deadly Aggressive Behavior Drill” on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. The drill will be held in conjunction with the Rockland County Office of Emergency Management and the Rockland County REACT Team.

The drill will take place in a currently unused section of the hospital so as not to disturb patients or hospital activities. Police officers will be moving about the facility. Hospital staff will be participating alongside the first responders. There will be several police vehicles in the adjacent parking lots, and those areas will be off limits to staff and visitors for the duration of the drill.

These drills are designed to be as realistic as possible for both the staff and the emergency responders. “Being prepared in the case of different types of emergencies or stressful situations is vitally important to hospital operations,” states Kathleen Martucci, Chief Operating Officer. “Having drills such as this, which provide us with the opportunity to work side-by-side with our local emergency responders, is extremely important to ensuring that we are as well versed as possible on how to respond positively and appropriately. The drill will also offer an ideal opportunity to test our recently developed internal hospital-wide lock down policy.”

The hospital is greatly appreciative of the opportunity to work with the Rockland County specialists in emergency management.