By Healthcare Facilities Today

Three years ago, when the Joplin, Mo., tornado left St. John`s Regional Medical Center in ruins, Shane Cohea and his staff went up to Joplin to observe and learn from their experience.  Cohea is director of safety, security and emergency preparedness for Norman Regional Health Systems which operates Moore Medical Center in Oklahoma

According to a story on the Fox2News website, over the past two years Cohea has overseen the implementation of new procedures which were key to saving lives when his hospital was hit in Moore last summer.

“We did think we were prepared just from a lot of research we did at Joplin, that maybe other places hadn`t done.  We came back and trained with the leadership team and trained with the staff and within two years, here we are, totally devastated,” Cohea said in the article.

“We had plenty of time to get the patients out of the department to safe areas of the hospital.  It went really well because everybody for the most part kept a level head.  The people who needed to give direction gave direction really well and the people who needed to take it took it really well,” Nick Stremble, managing nurse in the E.R. that night, said in the article.   

Read the article.