A Conversation with Dr. Thomas Blackwell
August 29, 2012
Preparing for a Disaster Waiting to Happen
A Discussion with Dr. Thomas Blackwell
Director, USC School of Medicine Greenville
EMT Operations Exercise
On Friday, August 31, the Greenville Hospital System (GHS) will host a disaster preparedness exercise with the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine Greenville and Greenville Technical College. This true-to-life exercise is designed to test the skills of medical and paramedic students. The exercise is the brain child of Dr. Thomas Blackwell, a member of the GHS medical staff, professor with the medical school and expert in disaster medicine.
Q. How did you become an expert in disaster medicine?
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
In the 1980s, I was looking for a niche specialty within emergency medicine and developed an interest in the health consequences of terrorism and disaster medicine. At the time, no one else was focused on this. While I was at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, I secured $6 million in federal grants to establish ALERT (Advanced Local Emergency Response Team) with the Charlotte police, fire, EMS and public health departments. The ALERT team became fully operational in 1999. At the time, I was often referred to as Chicken Little. When the attacks on 9/11 occurred, the City of Charlotte was ready and people started calling me a visionary.
Q. Explain what’s taking place on August 31.
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
It’s a disaster waiting to happen. We’re hosting a true-to-life disaster preparedness event on the Greenville Memorial Medical Campus. There will be two simulated disasters, a motor vehicle crash and an industrial accident. USC School of Medicine Greenville medical students will respond to the disasters with the help of the City of Greenville Police and Fire Departments and Greenville County EMS, while Greenville Tech paramedic students run the Incident Command Center. We’ll run through the exercises four times — at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. (Media are invited to the 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. exercises.)
Q. What’s the purpose of the EMT Operations Exercise?
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
Pretty simple: Practice makes perfect. In this case, it’s first-year medical students completing six weeks of training to become certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), a requirement of our curriculum. The exercise is designed to test what they’ve learned over 200 hours of EMT training. It’s not a cakewalk either. The motor vehicle crash simulation will have multiple injuries and entrapments, and the industrial disaster simulation will have victims overcome by a potentially deadly gas. The med students will be tested on how well they assess the situation, perform triage, treat patients, work with other first responders and address the media.
Q. What makes the exercise true to life?
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
We’ve planned this thing down to the minute. The actors will wear full makeup — think blood — and each will follow a script. We’ve got a heart attack victim trapped in a vehicle and another dazed victim wandering around the crash site. Our med students will respond as EMTs, drawing upon their training as first responders.
Q. Why are the USC School of Medical students required to become certified EMTs?
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
We are really trying to do something different with this medical school. We are the only medical school to require our students become certified EMTs and continue practicing for two years. For the students, EMT training gives them basic clinical skills but also teaches them how to work as part of a healthcare team, how to communicate with patients, families and colleagues in tense situations and instills them with empathy for others. This is invaluable if you want to become a doctor.
Q. What’s Greenville Hospital System’s skin in the game?
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
The GHS mission is to heal compassionately, teach innovatively and improve constantly. As the community’s health system, we want to be prepared to respond to disasters with the best care. We also are committed to developing the next generation of doctors who are compassionate, intelligent and committed caregivers, but who are also leaders and problem solvers. Partnering with USC, Greenville Tech and the first responder community supports our mission.
Q. What does this exercise mean to the Greenville community?
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
Disasters are a part of life, whether it’s natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes or manmade like motor vehicle crashes and acts of terrorism. Regardless, communities rely on first responders who know what to do and are fearless in the line of duty. So having 53 new EMTs trained to pitch in and help is a tremendous gift to the Greenville community.
Q. Fifty-three new certified EMTs in Greenville. That’s impressive.
Dr. Thomas Blackwell:
That’s just the beginning. When the USC School of Medicine Greenville reaches full enrollment capacity in 2018 — 100 students in each of the four years of the MD program — the Upstate will have 400 certified EMTs ready to supplement professional first responders in the event of disasters. That’s impressive!
