Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall, Mo., examined its emergency response capacity and reporting mechanisms during the New Madrid Seismic Zone Catastrophic Event Planning Project, according to an article on the Marshall News website.

FEMA provided funding to the Central United States Earthquake Consortium to lead an effort to develop, improve and integrate the earthquake response plans of the eight states in the region: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. These states would be most affected by an earthquake.

Fitzgibbon Hospital staff, led by Chief Information Officer Tom Jones, who served as incident commander, participated in the drill. 

"While no one can imagine the damage in such a disaster, and we certainly hope it never occurs, participation in a drill like this makes us all think through some of the variables we as a facility would be faced with," Jones said.

Hospital staff discussed the many variables that may come into play, such as the supply of blood, medications, food, water and other supplies, and the hospital's ability to secure those supplies in the event of a disaster. Feeding staff and volunteers, and handling a restless population in the emergency department, all were possible scenarios the group discussed, the article said.

Read the article.