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StumbleHospital could face fine over terrorism drill gone awry
Investigation details traumatic events
Saturday, July 3, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
St. Rose Dominican Hospital — Siena Campus
Related document
Sun archives
- Hospital uses armed man in unannounced drill (5-29-2010)
- Hospital ER reopens after fatal police shooting (3-11-2009)
Nurses were caring for 26 patients in the intensive care unit at St. Rose Dominican Hospital — Siena Campus, when a man, edgy and brandishing a handgun, appeared in a hall and began herding nurses, doctors and other employees into a break room.
Employees began crying in fear, and no wonder. It was the second time in as many years a gunman had been in the hospital. Last year, Henderson Police shot and killed an armed, hostile man in the emergency room.
But this time, the handgun was not loaded. It was a terrorism training exercise.
The role-playing gunman was an off-duty Metro Police officer.
But no one told the staff the events that unfolded May 24 were not real.
And on Friday, the state Health Division said it may fine the hospital because patients were left unattended during those 15 minutes of terror.
Many details in this story are from the state’s report.
Teressa Conley, the hospital’s chief operating officer, told state investigators that the three employees who cooked up the exercise failed to tell hospital administrators or anyone in the intensive care unit about the drill.
“Staff thought there was a real armed hostage crisis occurring in the ICU unit,” the report said.
Conley told the Sun Friday that there were missteps in the planning of the drill, but no patient care was compromised, and that the hospital has provided emotional support for the employees who were traumatized.
The emergency drill was planned by the hospital’s heads of security, emergency management and the environmental care committee. Hospital employees had criticized previous drills as not being realistic, Conley said, so the three had “the best intentions” to make the drill worthwhile.
Conley told state investigators that at 10 a.m. that day, she heard a “code grey” announced — meaning an assault or threat by an unarmed aggressor in ICU. Ten minutes later it was upgraded to “code silver,” an assault, threat or hostage situation with an armed suspect.
The ICU’s director told state investigators that she approached the suspect with another employee and asked him to step into her office. He pointed the gun at them and directed them and two others into a break room. Two security guards who were in the room were directed to discard their radios.
One employee was suctioning a patient’s airway when he heard the code grey, stepped into the hallway and was seen and detained by the gunman. The employee told investigators that patient care was compromised because he was unable to finish suctioning the patient’s airway and could not check the oxygen level of the patient’s blood.
Another employee was caring for a patient who was suffering periods of low heart rate and low blood pressure when she heard the code grey over the overhead intercom. She saw the gunman, who looked angry, and was then taken as a hostage in the break room. She thought she was going to die, the state report said.
No one monitored the patients who had been abandoned during the drill, the employee said.
Eventually eight employees — two staff nurses, two doctors, a respiratory therapist, director of the unit, the charge nurse and a house supervisor — were in the room. They were told to get against a wall.
Several were crying. One employee told state investigators he thought he was going to die.
After about five minutes, the Metro officer told the group it was a drill, but he did not release them to be with patients for another 10 minutes, the report said.
Conley said the hospital has revised its training policy and will require announcements, signs and other communication with staff to ensure the mistake does not happen again.
Two of the three employees involved in planning the drill were suspended and then stripped of their positions, Conley said.
The security director was terminated. The job is posted on the hospital’s recruiting website.
The hospital faces an $800 fine for the violations identified in the investigation, state officials said.
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$800 fine???
These dopes are going to pay, and it is going to make $800 seem like vending machine money.
There are a million stories in the Naked City, and
this one is a real beaut.
Go Metro
$800 Fine ?..I think you left off about 6 zeros.THIS was a case that could have been so DEADLY all because of the "stupidity" of so called security. What happened to the morons that cooked this whiole thing up...they get a promotion? They should ALL be fired.Obviously they are not qualified to secure the mens room on cleaning day. AND the state wants to shake their finger at them with a $800 fine and say NO NO NO....don't do that again Johnny...Thank GOD I didn't a relative in or around that place. As for the OFF DUTY metro cop...he didn't think for one second this was going too far? I guess money speaks no matter what the gig.
Amazing.
Does anyone know if any of the other media has reported any of this?
Good job on the story Mr. Allen.
O.K. So two were suspended and one terminated,
This is a example of some things don't have to be simulated.
This was not a mistake as the hospital wants everyone to believe they are trying to dismiss this as someone breaking a rule IE like smoking in a non smoking area and that a little discipline will take care of it all.
And how about that off duty officer, I know they say off duty to protect the police dept. from being accountable but that does not relive the officer from from being held for a terrorist act I don't care if he calls himself a actor either,
Just suppose this officer would have came upon this scene playing out and he shot and kill the actor you know he would have defended himself by saying that it looked real to him so he acted accordingly.
And they haven't told the whole story of theses nurses weren't just crying they probable soiled them selves.
And $800.00 dollars my be all that can be levied by the State Health Division I would bet the farm that the circuit courts will here case's that will end in large judgements for the defendants.
And just how was it that these people decided to do this, did they just have a meeting one day and someone individual had to speak first it wasn't a spontaneous idea, To announce that they had a great idea that would scare the bejevees out of staff and if we do this it will save there lives!
Now what if this thing really happens and the staff disregards this as a drill and people get hurt, Some nice decision making going on there.
I bet If you went further and looked at how these people got into the positions they were in they were put there thru the buddy system and other applicants were cast aside.
Thank goodness that one of the employees didn't have a CCW and was carrying. Like many other posts... $800? Lives WERE at risk, and not just those being treated, and only an $800 fine?
I hate to say it, but that place makes Mayberry look like a think tank.
As the popular saying goes: "Where do you go for good medical care in Las Vegas?" -The airport.
Only $800??
Nevada regulatory agencies are a joke.
You can put patients in danger and terrorize staff. You can do extensive illegal construction in your casino-hotel, putting guests in danger.
And all you'll get is a slap on the wrist.
Heck, about the only time you'll read about a big fine is if somebody shakes their ass too much in one of the nightclubs.
Organized fear campaign by public and private security organizations to lobby against cutbacks and layoffs. The "terrorists are coming" "war on terror" etc.
Just like we had missle gap, the Soviets are going to invade and take away or TVs cars, and rape our women. Now we have the phony war on terror to waste time and money.
Every one of the hospital staff who were terrorized by this incredible foolishness should find the best attorneys and sue the hospital and each of the individuals involved personally.
No law enforcement officer with any common sense and half a brain would participate in idiocy like this, which demonstrates the utter lack of intelligence and common sense of some of the buffoons Metro hires.
They probably chose ICU knowing it was the most sensitive areas of critical patient care in any hospital, and no one there would be armed - including security guards. Too bad. They should have tried this ignorance in a more public area of the hospital, like E.R. where some legally armed citizen might have taken out the ignorant cop - "terrorist."
About the $800 fine. Those fines are predetermined in Nevada law. That means the regulators just follow the laws that have been established by the legislators. So the correct people to ask about this would be the politicians, not the regulators.
Are the security guards armed at that hospital?
With thousands of citizens in this valley licensed to carry a concealed weapon, including myself, this Metro cowboy is lucky that I wasn't in the hospital when he did his ruse. Having an unloaded gun and brandishing it, especially in a hospital after a previously fatal event, is grounds for immediate termination by everyone involved, and that goes all the way to the top of Metro.
Are there no ramifications for being stupid on this department, or are cavalier, asinine actions just taken for granted?
A while back in So. Calif. a guy runs into a police seminar waving a gun and tells everyone to get their hand up. Thinking it was a (bad) test, two officers (A captain and a Sergeant) stand up and tell the guy to knock it off. Bang-bang both officers are shot dead.
Metro is about 20 to 30 years behind the rest of the nation in professionalism, and it's just a matter of time before the Fed's move in, and then the taxpayers are gonna pony up for these cowboys and their shoot-em up antics.
Is this for real? Are there really people working at this hospital that are that stoopid?
WTF!!! How stupid. Yeah, everyone has to be prepared for a terrorist attack (but this didn't seem like a terrorist attack - just another armed nutcase) but to do this in the ICU was a very bad move. What if you had a family member and during this "terrorist attack", that person went into cardiac arrest and everyone was being held "hostage"?
And yes as so many have said: they are so lucky a visitor that was carrying wasn't in the ICU!! This fake terrorist would be dead right now.
FIRE EVERYONE involved in this.
My God, this is the stupidest, most irresponsible thing to be conncocted that I have read about in a long, long time. Terrorizing nurses and doctors who have patients to care for was something that needed to be done? Hospitals are not playgrounds. The staff can have organized training for a possible terrorist assault on the hospital, but doing it this way was dangerous and maybe even criminal. Some of the commenters are on the mark when they posted that someone could have been killed by a person carrying a concealed weapon and decided to step in and help. Just nuts. What happens now if a real terrorist enters a hospital in Nevada? Will the staff believe it is for real?
Gotta be kidding!
Lucky for that guy with the "empty" gun there was no one there with a concealed carry.
And for today's community circus act, ringmaster Gillespie will demonstrate "how to traumatize a hospital using a terrorist ruse."
You just can't make this stuff up.
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So one of the responsible employees still works at the hospital? I imagine those who were traumatized by his/her actions must feel like it's a slap in their face every time they see that person in the hospital.
And after this incident didn't a doctor bring a rifle to Siena Hospital to give it to someone.
Is ANYONE thinking of how their careless actions affect others? Just saying
i really do think these people should be sued until it bleeds.
someone could have literally been killed and i can't imagine the terror people felt while going through this.
dhvincent1:
I was asking about the security guards because, from the story, it appears this bozo Metro cop told security guards to discard their radios. If they were indeed armed, that cop is lucky he's alive. What I really want to know is what Metro is doing about the cop who showed such incredibly poor judgment.
I can add another reason to avoid this hospital!!!
The stupidity of those in charge and ObamaCare has yet to kick in!
Hey, I know!!!
Let's do a "fake holdup" exercise at Caesar's!
Tonight would be perfect... busy holiday weekend, & FIREWORKS!
hmmmm... whaddya think, Metro???
It would have been nice for Marshall Allen to write a transitional paragraph for the opening of this story, so those who are not aware of the previous incident on which this story is based would have a better basis for understanding this segment (via this appreciated, follow-up).
THAT SAID, my comments are focused on the COO, Teressa Conley, who "... told the Sun Friday that there were missteps in the planning of the drill, but no patient care was compromised."
THAT IS A FLAT OUT LIE. Patients WERE compromised (definition: "exposed to danger")! This article even relates the explicit situations of two patients whose nurses were made to stop doing procdures that were in progress.
I feel Ms. Conley should be CENSURED, REPRIMANDED - or perhaps FIRED. How can a COO of a hospital not know the significance of what an "ICU" does? And if she does know, then she is guilty of exposing patients to harm via the armed assualt that was carried out for drill purposes.
I think this is called, "reckless endangerment" - at law.
The patients in an ICU have probably just had surgery of some nature which has placed them at-risk, and the patient may be - at any given time - a few minutes away from the onset of conditions in which DEATH could result. Thus CLOSE MONITORING AND ATTENTION IS REQUIRED.
The State should make sure that Ms. Conley has, at minimum, some notation of censure on her record that documents this flagrant and reckless violation of patient safety; perhaps even including put her on probation - if they intend to keep her. As an executive, "the buck stops here" - with Conley. One has to believe that Ms. Conley is apparently not a competent executive, and has not exhibited the management skills necessary to run a hospital - safely.
I would point out that AIRLINE PILOTS receive TRAINING for reacting to terrorists. However, there are no "armed training agents" getting on airplanes - loaded with passengers - that stick guns in the face of a pilot, and order the pilot and co-piot to leave the cockpit! And they wouldn't do this in-flight, either.
And, an airline passenger is not as at-risk as an ICU patient.
THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO PROTECT PATIENTS if the will to do so, and the money, was available. Such measures as activating electronic door locks to seal off areas, silent alarms to alert nurses and foster implementation specific actions (as above), proactive responses by security guards, and silent alarms to alert local police.
How could anyone possibly believe that herding nurses and doctors around in a hospital would accomplish anything in the way of training them how to react if a REAL gunman - or terrorist - showed up? Organizations hire CEO's, and COO's, and other executives based on their proven management and operational experience. That is why they get the "big bucks."
I think St. Rose "blew it" with this COO.
Once again the article does not have all the facts correct. Hopefully the truth will come out and stop many statements that are being made by those that want to embellish their participation and others that are covering themselves.