CDP holds first ICE since 2020

FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness conducted its first Integrated Capstone Event (ICE) since 2020 earlier today, bringing together more than 60 healthcare responders from two courses to work through a mass casualty scenario.

Students in the week’s Hospital Emergency Response Training (HERT) and Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents (HCL) resident courses participated in the exercise.

The three-day HERT course teaches healthcare responders about the Hospital Incident Command System and how to integrate it into a whole community response while operating a mass casualty treatment area with patients who have been contaminated with hazardous materials.

HCL is a four-day course which prepares healthcare leaders to make critical decisions during incidents resulting in multiple casualties, whether the result of a natural disaster, a disease outbreak or release of hazardous materials.

Integrated Capstone Events are culminating exercises where students from multiple courses and disciplines work together to respond to one or more simulated incidents patterned after recent real-world events.

In a typical year, the CDP conducts about 25 such exercises.