Stanford Hospital does nation's first drive-through pandemic exercise

BY SARA WYKES

Norbert von der Groeben

Several dozen drivers play the role of patients in a Stanford Hospital exercise to prepare for the onslaught of patients that could occur in a pandemic.

Norbert von der Groeben

A Stanford Hospital emergency medicine physician gathers vital signs from pretend patient, Marika O'Bair-Kark, in the first test of an innovative pandemic drive-through screening and treatment protocol.

A couple of months ago, during the swine flu scare, Stanford Hospital & Clinics had a preview of what a real pandemic might look like: Hundreds of people, fearing they might be sick with the H1N1 virus, showed up at the emergency department looking for help. Hospital officials scrambled fast, converting some space overnight into an infection-controlled triage area.

Friday morning, Stanford Hospital tested a different triage model, one that could become the standard for how hospitals respond when thousands need care at the height of a pandemic. It’s a drive-through triage-and-care system that keeps sick people in their cars, preventing them from infecting anyone else, while allowing doctors, nurses and pharmacists to care for them as quickly and efficiently as possible through an open window.

“One of the biggest issues in a pandemic is cross-contamination,” said emergency medicine physician Milana Boukhman, as she waited for another volunteer “sick” person to arrive at her treatment station, one of several set up in a parking garage near the hospital. “Cars are self-contained contamination units. And this works if you have limited resources, too.”

The system tested Friday, with 40 patients and 50 health care providers, was simple. Each pretend patient, wearing a card with a list of symptoms on a neck string, drove to each step in the process to be questioned or examined by a physician, nurse or pharmacist through the window. Evaluators and observers, both health care and emergency preparedness officials, hovered near each stage, timing transactions and recording data. Each patient was registered, evaluated, treated and then discharged.

The gathered data that will be sent on to the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control for evaluation and review.