Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist will be conducting a full-scale exercise at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Wilkes Medical Center, Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 8 a.m. until noon.
There will be no disruption to patient care at Wilkes Medical Center, although patients and visitors may notice activity around the hospital.
This exercise ensures leadership, staff and community partners are adequately prepared to respond to and manage any major incident that could affect Wilkes Medical Center or another hospital within the Wake Forest Baptist system. A secondary objective of the exercise will be to manage continued and sustained operations after an incident.
“These exercises are extremely crucial and necessary to the safety of our patients, visitors and teammates, said Ken Bishop, director of emergency management and business continuity at Wake Forest Baptist. “While our hope is to never have to use the skills learned through these trainings, we must always be ready for any unseen incidents or events and be the best trained system for those who rely on us.”
In order to meet regulatory obligations, set by the Joint Commission, Wake Forest Baptist is required to participate in exercises twice a year and one must be at full-scale.
“Being prepared for anything is very important as a hospital and health care system and that is why we participate in events like this,” said Chad Brown, president of Wilkes Medical Center. “We want our community to know that we always have plans in place to take care of our patients, visitors and our teammates when unforeseen events occur.”
All hospitals in the Wake Forest Baptist system are participating in the exercise, along with Wilkes County EMS, Wilkes County Rescue, and the North Wilkesboro Fire Department.