Shreveport – Bossier City Hospitals to Participate in a Mass Casualty Exercise

Hospital visitors and patients should not be alarmed if they see numbers of what appear to be traumatically injured patients at local emergency departments Tuesday morning, October 22, 2024.

A mass casualty incident (MCI) exercise will be conducted by Shreveport and Bossier City hospitals to better prepare them for a possible disaster response.

The exercise will include 92 students from Northwestern State University – Shreveport, who will act as disaster casualties needing medical care at local hospital emergency departments. To prepare the NSU Students for their role and add to the exercise realism, leadership from Barksdale Airforce Base provided moulage training to simulate traumatic injuries and burns.

Knox Andress, RN, Designated Regional Coordinator said, “our exercise objectives will include casualty triage, communications, coordination, surge capacity and patient tracking”.

Participating Shreveport/Bossier City hospitals include CHRISTUS Bossier Emergency Hospital, CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center, Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport, Willis Knighton - Bossier, Willis Knighton - North, Willis Knighton - Pierremont and Willis Knighton - South.

Exercise planning partners include the Caddo and Bossier Parishes Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Shreveport Fire Department, Balentine Ambulance, Calumet Specialty Products, Northwestern State University – Shreveport, Barksdale Air Force Base and the Louisiana Region 7 Healthcare Coalition.

For more information contact – Knox Andress, RN, Designated Regional Coordinator, Louisiana Region 7 Healthcare Coalition, 318-465-9500: willie.andress@lsuhs.edu

For questions regarding this press release, please contact Brandon Fountain