The California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) organized a training exercise for a medical response to a catastrophic earthquake. The full-scale medical response exercise was held from June 4-6 and is part of Cal EMA's annual Golden Guardian readiness exercise. The activities are federally funded and are an integral part of EMSA's grant-supported preparedness activities.
"The goal of the exercise is to evaluate the integration of state disaster medical resources and practice how the different organizations and resources coordinate to provide medical response to save lives and minimize injuries," said Dr. Howard Backer, EMSA Director. "Working with our local, state and federal partners, we aim to ensure readiness to help Californians when needed."
Helicopters from the California National Guard, REACH, CALSTAR, and Mercy Air Ambulance Sevices transported the mock patients from Mather airport to the exercise site at California State University, Sacramento. Ambulance strike teams from Ameican Medical Response met the helicopters in the landing zone and transported the patients to a mobile field hospital operated in cooperation with disaster response teams from Scripps, Tenet, and Stanford Health Systems. Nursing and EMS students from Sacramento State's College of Continuing Education served as the volunteer patients.
"Sacramento State is proud to contribute to efforts that save lives in California. Practical learning has long been a hallmark of our campus, and the readiness exercise highlights our students' tremendous impact on the communities we serve," said Sacramento State President, Alexander Gonzalez.
The Emergency Medical Services Authority is responsible for coordinating the state's medical response to a major disaster. Please visit EMSA's website at
www.emsa.ca.gov.
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