OSF HealthCare collaborated with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Galesburg Police Department Friday, September 18, for a multi-agency active threat exercise at the former Cottage Hospital in Galesburg.
The exercise provided law enforcement and OSF HealthCare Mission Partners with a realistic environment to respond to a complex emergency while strengthening coordination between public safety and health care partners. The former hospital setting allowed participants to train in a large medical facility and address challenges involving safety, patient care, communication and emergency response.
Representatives from the State of Illinois government, members of the Knox County Board, Illinois State Police, local health departments, emergency medical services, area school districts, Galesburg City Council and other community organizations also observed the exercise from a dedicated screening room. This allowed community leaders to see how a large-scale emergency response unfolds and consider how their own organizations may be involved during an actual incident.
“Effective interagency response has to be established, practiced and tested before the day you need it,” said Casey Hendrickson, emergency management coordinator for OSF HealthCare hospitals in the West-Central Illinois market. “Exercises like this allow our law enforcement and health care teams to work side by side, understand each other’s roles and identify where we can improve.”
The exercise also provided participants an opportunity to identify potential gaps in communication, clarify responsibilities and strengthen procedures that can be incorporated into future emergency planning and training.
For OSF HealthCare and its community partners, the goal is to ensure teams are prepared to work together when every moment matters. The September 18 exercise reinforced an important principle of emergency preparedness: no single organization responds to a major crisis alone.
***Courtesy of Carrie McCance, Public Relations & Communications Coordinator with OSF HealthCare***
