By Lisa Schencker
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO —Each summer, Rush University Medical Center holds a drill to make sure it’s prepared for disasters — events such as mass shootings and chemical attacks.
The focus of this year’s drill? An explosion at a political convention in Chicago.
“Sitting on the doorstep of the United Center, we have to be on edge and on guard, and really be prepared,” said Dr. Nick Cozzi, EMS and disaster medical director at Rush University Medical Center.
Leaders and organizations across the city have spent months excitedly preparing for Chicago to host the Democratic National Convention, which starts Aug. 19 at the United Center and McCormick Place. It’s an event that will draw national attention, fill hotel rooms and bring dollars to the city.
Chicago’s hospitals, however, have simultaneously been planning for a potential darker side to the convention. They’ve been developing plans and practicing for influxes of patients should violence erupt or disaster strike at the convention during this time of political anxiety — a mood exacerbated by the attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
In some ways, preparing for the convention has been like readying for other large events, such as the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, the Chicago Marathon and Lollapalooza, say hospital leaders.
In fact, it’s somewhat of a relief that the DNC is expected to attract far fewer attendees than Lollapalooza, said George DiLeonardi, vice president of security services and emergency management for Northwestern Memorial HealthCare . The DNC is expected to draw about 50,000 people, while Lollapalooza often attracts about 100,000 a day.
In other ways, preparing for the DNC has been markedly different from readying for other large events, hospital officials say. The convention will include a number of high-profile individuals, attract protesters and is happening at a tense time in American politics.
“Obviously, we’re in a heightened environment post-assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” Cozzi said. “On top of that, we do know there will be protesters and agitators. … That’s different than Lollapalooza or a concert.”
If people sustain traumatic injuries at the convention, Chicago Fire Department ambulances will likely speed patients to Stroger Hospital , Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center because those hospitals are Level 1 trauma centers and because of their proximity to the convention, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford .
Level I trauma centers are hospitals that provide all essential services in-house, 24 hours a day. They are equipped to fully treat the most traumatic types of wounds, such as those from gunshots, stabbings and serious vehicle accidents.
Northwestern Memorial and Stroger, which is the closest Level I trauma center to the United Center, have been preparing for the convention for months.
Hospitals generally hold regular drills to prepare for different scenarios. Many hospitals throughout the city, including Northwestern and Stroger, participated in a drill in June, imagining an incident involving radiation exposure in Chicago. In addition to that, Northwestern held a mass casualty drill in April.
“We always try to prepare for the worst but hope for the best,” said Craig Williams, Cook County Health chief administrative officer. Stroger is part of Cook County Health. “We almost never know what the world is going to throw at us so we constantly need to be kind of stressing things.”
In addition to being prepared for a mass casualty event, Williams is concerned about traffic in the late afternoons and evenings, as convention events ramp up each day.
“It seems like there’s going to be more traffic than your typical Bulls or Blackhawks game related to this event,” Williams said.
Cook County Health usually keeps three to four days of supplies, such as medicine and food, on hand and is stockpiling in case of traffic disruptions, Williams said.
Cook County Health, Rush and University of Illinois Hospital are also calling patients who are supposed to have appointments that week to give them the option of rescheduling. Rush is also giving patients the option, in some cases, to move their appointments to different Rush locations or see providers virtually.
Rush and Stroger also plan to have extra cots set up in their hospitals for workers who want to stay overnight, rather than fight traffic at the beginning or end of their shifts. Typically, the hospitals can give workers reduced rates at nearby hotels when they have trouble commuting, such as during a snowstorm. But many hotel rooms will be filled with conventiongoers. Northwestern also plans to have cots at the ready.
“I’d love to tell you it’s glamping,” Williams joked of the cots that will be set up in conference rooms. “It’s a team-building experience.”
The University of Illinois Hospital, which also sits near the United Center, will give its workers the option of sleeping in unused dorms and clinic spaces if they choose, said Dr. Janet Lin, an attending physician in the emergency department and co-chair of the emergency management committee for UI Health.
Though Rush and University of Illinois Hospital aren’t Level 1 trauma centers, they’re still preparing to be on the front lines should something go wrong at the event.
Rush is the closest hospital to the United Center. It’s less than a mile-long walk from the arena to the hospital. The University of Illinois Hospital is in the same area.
Though ambulances wouldn’t likely bring many trauma victims to those hospitals, they could bring patients with different types of injuries.
“In a mass casualty incident the idea is not to overwhelm any one hospital,” Lin said.
Those hospitals could also see patients arriving via car and on foot, given their proximity to the United Center.
“One of the things we know specifically from mass casualty events is 80% (of people) who seek emergency services after these events don’t come via 911 fire department ambulances,” Cozzi said. “They come via private vehicle.”
During its June drill, Rush imagined a scenario where more than 60 patients sought care at the hospital, with many walking across the bridges over I-290.
“We want to be prepared for that event where folks coming across and looking for emergency services don’t know the capabilities of the hospital specifically, they’re just seeking medical care,” Cozzi said.
When trauma patients arrive at Rush’s door, via foot or private vehicle, the hospital typically works to stabilize them and then transfer them to a comprehensive trauma center.
Should patients stream into Rush, the hospital can transform its lobby into an extension of the emergency department, thanks to technology embedded in the hospital’s walls. The hospital’s ambulance bay can also convert into a mass decontamination unit, in the event the hospital gets many patients who’ve been exposed to certain substances like pepper spray or mace or who faced a chemical attack.
In addition to its June drill, Rush held an additional exercise recently in which its emergency medicine resident physicians donned headsets to participate in a virtual reality simulation of a mass casualty event. The scenario was a mass transit bombing.
“There are things we know and there are things we don’t know,” Cozzi said, “but we can control what we can control.”
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