St. Joseph's hospital employees face active shooters in realistic drill
TOTOWA — Hospital staff for St. Joseph's Health are better prepared to deal with a violent intruder after participating in a drill with armed police officers.
The training was meant to simulate true-to-life scenarios. The officers, who portrayed disgruntled employees or former patients, pretended to show up angry to the Minnisink Road campus. The staff members were then challenged to calm down the actors, who, in some instances, escalated the situation and pulled out weapons to fire blank projectiles.
Christopher Johnston, the director of safety for St. Joseph's Health, said the lessons taught during the drill were powerful and that the emergencies seemed "very real."
"There's a lot of staff that have never seen a firearm," Johnston said.
"When you first see one presented to you," he added, "there's the oh-my-goodness moment, and they sometimes freeze. I'd rather them freeze during the training scenario than if they actually saw something like that in real life."
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The live demo was co-coordinated by local police, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office, the Passaic County Sheriff's Office and state troopers.
"We want our employees to have a sense of their surroundings and to be mindful of their safety and security, whether they're on campus or off campus," Johnston said.
More shootings in and near hospitals are forcing reviews of security protocols at health care sites around the country.
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The triple killing at what was then Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago in November 2018 was considered the worst attack in such a setting in at least 20 years. The perpetrator, an ex-fiancé of one of the victims, was gunned down in a shootout with police.
In June, a man who reportedly underwent an operation and had been in pain since the procedure opened fire in a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing four people before turning the gun on himself. Among the victims was his surgeon.
We want our employees to have a sense of their surroundings and to be mindful of their safety and security, whether they're on campus or off campus.
Christopher Johnston, director of safety, St. Joseph's Health
And just last week, six people were wounded in shooting incidents that led to a hospital lockdown in Memphis, Tennessee.
St. Joseph's Health, which treats more than 1.5 million people annually, has locations in Cedar Grove, Paterson and Wayne. It opened the 140,000-square-foot local campus last month, offering diagnostic imaging, primary care and urgent care. There is also a pharmacy and medical offices for cardiology, gynecology and urology.
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A cancer center will begin accepting patients at the new facility in the fall.
All of the health system's staff must complete online training for active-shooter preparedness each year, Johnston said.
Eighty employees of different job titles, including custodians, nurses and physicians, took part in the in-person training, which is offered annually.
Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: devencentis@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: St. Joseph's hospital staff face active shooters in training
