Health Department Prepares for Public Health Emergency

Inside the Osceola High School gym on Wednesday morning, a woman passed out on the floor and needed medical assistance.

Minutes later a fight nearly broke out between two women who were having a heated verbal dispute.

Outside the gym a group of angry citizens stormed the doors and demanded to be let in immediately. A sheriff’s deputy had to intervene to calm the disturbance.

Was this some kind of parent revolt over their student’s final report card, a tense meeting involving the school board, or a Justin Bieber concert ticket drop?

Turns out the pandemonium was part of Operation MedStock, a staged exercise conducted by the  as part of their Public Health Preparedness program.

“The point of doing exercises like this…is to learn what the problems are and fix them before we have a real emergency, “ said Stephanie Anspaugh, planning and logistics coordinator for the program, during a break in the drill.

“We have plans that are great, but translating those plans into reality…doesn’t always work. So we would much rather find that out now than have to fix things on the fly,” she added.

The participants in the exercise were employees and volunteers with the health department. They took turns portraying victims of an anthrax attack at Tropicana Field and emergency workers who would have to deal with such a scenario.

Osceola High School served as the health department’s Point of Dispensing (POD), a predetermined location in the county where trained professionals can execute a temporary clinic where mass dispensing of medications or vaccines is done.

While half the group played the parts of potentially infected citizens, some of whom were angry enough to incite confrontations or pass out from preexisting medical conditions, others took on the roles of health officials, organizing the scene and making sure medicine was dispensed promptly and properly.

Maggie Hall, the county's health department spokesperson, stressed that county residents with special medical needs should preregister with the health department so they don’t have to face showing up at a shelter that is not equipped to handle their specific situations.

As the exercise came to a close, Anspaugh said she was pleased overall with the way the drill went, but she recognized there are areas that need to be evaluated and fine tuned in the event of an actual emergency.

"I hope that we never ever have to use these plans, but in the event that we face this or something similar, our staff will be better prepared."