Skaggs Catholic Center tests emergency response during drill held with nearby Lone Peak Hospital

Friday, Nov. 14, 2014

DRAPER — The Skaggs Catholic Center participated in a statewide emergency preparedness exercise that also allowed them to practice serving as an emergency center for the nearby Lone Peak Hospital.

The scenario for Vigilant Guard Utah 2014, which was sponsored by the Department of Defense’s Northern Command, simulated a massive earthquake striking Utah. The exercise, which took place Nov. 3-6 in venues across the Salt Lake Valley, was meant to test and improve the Utah Division of Emergency Management’s and the Utah National Guard’s ability to support local responders during a disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency press release.

More than 1,700 Utah National Guard members participated in the exercise, as did more than 1,000 emergency workers throughout the state, and more than 300 out-of-state military and federal workers, said Lt. Col. Steven Fairbourn, Utah National Guard public affairs officer.

 “In the event of a significant catastrophe like a 7.0 earthquake, these agencies will need to work together, and that is what this exercise really practiced,” Fairbourn said. 

At the Skaggs Center, which houses the Guardian Angel day care center, the two Saint John the Baptist schools and Juan Diego Catholic High School, all of the students were evacuated as part of an earthquake drill. Afterward, 34 high school students from the pre-med and drama programs posed as injured people so that Lone Peak Hospital personnel could practice their emergency response protocols.

The exercise scenario included setting up an alternative location for the hospital in the JDCHS auxiliary gymnasium. For school officials, the drill allowed them to practice evacuating 2,200 students and staff, identify the injured, and get them medical help, said Molly Dumas, the school’s public relations officer.

“We created this scenario to find out where all of our holes are,” she said. “Everybody has to practice this.”

The Skaggs Catholic Center is well-suited to be an alternative site for Lone Peak Hospital, which is a mile down the street, said Dr. Julie Fox, a hospital spokesperson. 

“They have a lot of resources here,” she said. “They’re prepared to shelter their students as well as to shelter people from the community. Our hospital is also prepared to do that as well, but in case of damage to our hospital we would relocate here. … This is a very safe building.”

The drill allowed hospital officials to practice communicating with other agencies as well as handling the logistics of setting up an alternate site, Fox said. 

In the “emergency room at JDCHS, Carolyn Kunz, an RN at Lone Peak Hospital, tried to anticipate the types of injuries the medical staff would need to treat, and what supplies were necessary. “We are trying to make notes as we go along today and find out where we are lacking in our planning and anticipating what we might need to take care of patients that we send over here,” she said. 

During the exercise, Lauren Cid, a JDCHS advanced drama student, practiced not only responding to an emergency but also her acting skills. She played the part of a patient with a broken arm. When the “earthquake” struck and students were evacuated from their classroom, “it was kind of hectic at first, but I think that’s how it would be if something like this really happened,” she said. “It was kind of hard to know where to go but everyone was very helpful in getting the people who were injured over here.”

She was transported to the hospital, and “I liked seeing the hectic nature of the emergency room because it was kind of like the real thing,” she said.

Then makeup artists created “wounds” on the students playing patients. 

“I saw a lot of cool makeup being done really quick,” Cid said. “I think it was cool seeing normal, healthy people turned into injured hospital people right before my very eyes.” 

In addition to the partnership with Lone Peak Hospital, the Skaggs Catholic Center is part of the City of Draper’s emergency plan; they also have a memorandum of understanding with the Red Cross. 

“We’re always testing our plan,” Dumas said.