OCH Regional Medical Center preparing for anything and everything

STARKVILLE, Miss.(WCBI) – Safety was the focus for the employees of the OCH Regional Medical Center Wednesday by learning the do’s and don’t’s, if ever a disaster strikes.

“We can tell you all day long about the things that we have but unless you see them and get your hands on using them I don’t know that you know how to do it,” said OCH Regional Medical Center Employee Savannah Brown.

Tourniquet, med sleds, hazmat tents and more were available to OCH Regional Medical Employees Wednesday during its mandatory Safety fair.

“All these things help patients stay safe, help our facility stay safe. It’s just a reminder our facility goes through this every year,” said Disaster Preparedness Director Wesley Andrews.

While OCH has never had an epic disaster, Andrews says the time to think about an event is before it happens.

“The better prepared we are the better able we are to handle the needs of our patients and our community. The last thing we want is for people to come up saying, ‘well they didn’t know what they were doing.’ Well yes, yes we did,”said Andrews.

Brown works with staff development. She says it’s important to think of the patients’ safety but employees can’t forget about their own.

“You see a high frequency of injuries especially with nursing staff, with lifts, and shifting around. We want to make sure that they know how to use the things that can protect them. If we did have a disaster almost everything that’s in here they could use and some type of capacity,” said Brown.

Andrews says the hands-on experience is something that each employee will be glad they had when it really counts.

“Training is such an invaluable resource. When we have opportunities like this for our staff to get their hands on it just so sort of solidifies what they’re learning and the recall is just a whole lot better,”said Andrews.

More than 600 employees will visit the two-day fair.