The Mariners Hospital emergency department was on high alert Thursday morning, as ambulance after ambulance brought in patients suffering from head trauma, third-degree burns and other serious injuries.</p><p>They were the victims of an explosion on a commercial dive boat. Some were treated by emergency medical personnel on scene. Some were treated at the hospital. Some died.</p><p>Fortunately, the scenario was a drill to test the skills of local first responders and hospital staff. A group of 30 Mariners Hospital Auxiliary members and others played the victims. <hr size="1"><br> <table border="0"><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://media.keysnet.com/smedia/2009/01/23/10/Mass_Casualty_Drill_LARGE.source.prod_affiliate.143.wmv"><img src="http://media.keysnet.com/smedia/2008/09/11/14/1-GREEN_Clapboard.standalone.prod_affiliate.143.jpg" alt="Type Alt here"></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://media.keysnet.com/smedia/2009/01/23/10/Mass_Casualty_Drill_LARGE.source.prod_affiliate.143.wmv"><h5>Click to see video of the training drill</h5></a></td></tr></table> </p><p><font size="-2">You need a video player or browser plugin that supports Windows movie files (.wmv), such as Windows Media Player (installed on most PCs). </font></p> <hr><br> “We are required by our licensure to have a surge [of patients] into our hospital, which is supposed to stretch our system and test our policies and procedures to see how we respond,” said Janet Catani, safety and security manager at Mariners Hospital.</p><p>Catani said the Joint Commission, the country’s leading health care accreditor, requires hospitals to perform a mass casualty incident drill once a year. The drills usually happen only within the hospital, but this year Mariners looked to include local first responders in the Islamorada and Monroe County fire rescue departments.</p><p>“They were really very pleased to be involved,” Catani said. “They would be the first responders in a real situation like this, so it’s also testing them. Like us, they’d like to keep their skills in good order.”</p><p>Patients were set up in three groups at the U.S. Coast Guard station on Plantation Key, Tavernier Creek Marina and at Harry Harris Park as if they had just been brought into shore by marine rescuers.</p><p>Fire rescue crews got the call at 8 a.m. and dispatched to the three locations. Once on scene, symptom cards described each patient’s condition, with the help of a little acting by the patients themselves.</p><p>“I’m going fishing. I’m going fishing,” repeated Ron Maggio, who was playing a patient confused due to head trauma, as he was strapped into a gurney at the Tavernier Creek Marina staging area.</p><p>Islamorada Fire Rescue Capt. Geo Toth said mass casualty events rarely happen in the Keys, but the training does help the department prepare for more common incidents that require similar skills.</p><p>“Luckily it doesn’t happen that often, maybe once in a couple years — unless you want to count Bartenders’ Week,” said Toth of the annual event also known as the Hospitality Expo at Holiday Isle. </p><p>“I remember certain times we’ve had five trucks on the road at one time. It’s not exactly a [mass casualty incident] but it does tax our resources,” he said. “That’s kind of what this is all about. What do we do when we get more than one scene going on at one time? How do we react?”</p><p>At Mariners, emergency department physician Dr. Seth Horowitz and nurse Keith Warren assessed incoming patients outside and coordinated with a team of doctors and nurses inside the department. </p><p>They said the whole operation went smoothly.</p><p>“It’s a good test of how everything interlinks,” Horowitz said. “How we link the pre-hospital system with the EMS system, with the emergency activation system, with the…triage system in the hospital. </p><p>“It’s to make sure everything works well together. So that we can get patients from the accident treated without overloading a particular part of the system.”