CHS serves as care site for Spectrum overflow

More than 40 patients were admitted for care at Grand Valley's Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, which on May 3 served as an alternative care site for Spectrum Health-Butterworth Hospital.

It was the culmination of a mock disaster that health care professionals from Grand Valley State University, Spectrum Health, Region 6 Healthcare Network Coalition and Kent County Health Department had planned for two years.

The scenario tested the use of the CHS facility as a site for patient care in the event of a large-scale, actual community disaster or epidemic. Friday’s scenario sent patients who had attended a concert at Van Andel Arena to area hospitals with symptoms of nausea, stomach pain and respiratory issues.   

Volunteers from surrounding counties, including honors students from the Kent ISD’s Health Sciences Early College Academy, served as patients and health care workers. Mingyu Wu, assistant professor of occupational safety and health management, was a patient. “I thought it would be a nice, learning experience to see the reaction to an emergency response,” Wu said.

During the mock disaster, Grand Valley students from nursing, physician assistant studies, and medical lab sciences, participated in an interprofessional exercise that involved three human patient simulators, two adults and one baby, which were manipulated via computer to present increasingly severe symptoms.