South Hills Healthcare Students Participate in UPMC Altoona Trauma Drill

South Hills Community News Release

STATE COLLEGE, PA – Students of the Administrative Medical Assistant (AMA), Medical Assistant (MA) and Health Information Technology (HIT) specialized associate degree programs from the Altoona Campus of South Hills School of Business & Technology recently participated in a trauma drill at UPMC Altoona.

A trauma drill is a coordinated, supervised activity used to test a specific operation, function, or department in a hospital. Typical drills for hospitals include setting up decontamination, triage, and/or treatment areas and going through the motions of procedures used to treat patients. Hospital disaster exercises like this, particularly ones that simulate large-scale catastrophe scenarios, are one of the best ways to for a hospital to evaluate its emergency management plans, equipment, and systems, as well as test new procedures and give hospital staff an opportunity to practice and perfect their emergency response skills.

The AMA, MA, and HIT students participated in the drill by acting as gunshot victims arriving in the trauma and emergency room departments. Following the completion of the trauma drill, UPMC Altoona hospital staff gave the students tours of the trauma and emergency rooms then granted them access to the roof to view the STAT MedEvac 11 helicopter and its landing area.