Maui Among 27 Hospitals in Today’s RIMPAC Live Training Exercises

Maui Memorial Medical Center Emergency Department Physician Dr. Randy Niklason treats “mock-patient” as part of the RIMPAC exercise on Maui. File photo 2012 courtesy, MMMC.

A total of 27 Hawaiʻi Hospitals from six islands, including Maui, join the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Live Training Exercises today.

The humanitarian assistance/disaster response exercises include the participation of more than 300 volunteers. The volunteers will portray patients from a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami and will be triaged in mobile hospital units on Ford Island. They will then be transported by helicopter, ambulance and ambulance bus to hospitals on six islands, including Maui.

For the first time, all of the acute care hospitals in the state are participating in the RIMPAC HA/DR exercises.  As part of the exercise, eight victim/patients will be flown out via military Blackhawk Helicopter from the landing pad at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

Hospitals across the state are participating in the RIMPAC disaster scenario exercises with helicopter landings, patient transport, and moulage (mock injuries molded from rubber or latex). Simulated casualty care operations will involve the use of the Maui Memorial Medical Center helipad and hospital facilities. File photo 2012 courtesy MMMC.

The exercise includes realistic wound stage makeup that will recreate injuries with protruding glass and rebar, as well as broken limbs. Patient arrival and departure will include transport by van and helicopter.

The triage area for the exercise will include the participation of 50 rescue medical professionals, a portable disaster hospital system, an infectious disease isolation area and a medical surge field morgue.

Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management, a federally-funded program of the Healthcare Association of Hawaiʻi, is coordinating the participation of the 27 Hawaiʻi hospitals, the American Medical Response ambulance company, and more than two dozen post-acute care organizations in the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief component of the US Navy’s 2018 RIMPAC exercises.