Students rely on CDP training during, following fire

When an electrical fire occurred last month at a Signature Healthcare medical facility in Brockton, Massachusetts, employees there used things they’d been taught in Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) training to establish an incident command and safely evacuate all patients and staff.

Since 2018, dozens of Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital have attended the CDP’s Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents and Hospital Emergency Response Training for Mass Casualty Incidents (HERT) courses, their corresponding Integrated Capstone Events (ICEs), and the center’s HERT Train-the-Trainer Course.

Students who successfully complete the HERT Train-the-Trainer Course can coordinate with the CDP and teach the course to those at their facility.

Jeannette McGillicuddy, the director of environmental safety for the Brockton hospital, found the ICE exercises she participated in at the CDP to be particularly beneficial.

“That, I think, is the best part of the program – when you have to apply what you’ve learned,” she said.

McGillicuddy said her colleagues who had gone through CDP training were better prepared to make the quick decisions needed during the incident, and that she looks forward to future training for employees at the CDP as well as indirect training opportunities at her facility.

“I can’t say enough about the CDP. I’m always a proponent of its training,” she said.