Hospitals, emergency responders, health departments and coroners in northwestern Ohio took part in an emergency preparedness exercise to make sure hospitals are prepared for a mass-casualty response, according to an article on the LimaOhio.com website.

In the exercise, hospital officials were told there was a deadly breakout of the flu. There were hundreds of "deaths," including 66 at St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima over the imaginary three weeks the exercise was set up to simulate in one day, said Chief Jeff Ramey who heads the police department and the emergency management program at St. Rita’s.

Lima Memorial Hospital had 82 "deaths."

"We’re trying to create as much reality as we can without totally disrupting the operations of the facility,” Ramey said. “This is the first time we have really tested our mass-fatality plan. We want to see what is good about them and what needs work.”

Communications is one of the key issues, not just inside a big hospital but with everyone on the outside at all hospitals to ensure they can handle the patients coming in, according to Lima Memorial Director of Emergency Management Steve Mericle. For example, the hospital only has so many ventilators. 

If all ventilators are in use, paramedics need to know that ahead of time so the patients are taken to a hospital that has available ventilators, he said.

Read the article.