Rush Medical Center holds emergency drill in preparation for DNC 2024

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It's just under two weeks until the Democratic National Convention takes center stage at the United Center, and Rush Medical Center, the closest hospital to the site, held a preparedness drill Thursday.

The emergency drill helps ensure staff is prepared for a mass casualty incident. The "code triage" alert simulates a gas or chemical attack.

To be ready, the medical center equipped its ambulance bay to, if necessary, become a hazmat decontamination area.

"During any of these types of events, patients may experience contamination. Their eyes may be burning, their faces may be burning. They might have shortness of breath. But there's also an individual from our community that are having medical emergencies, and we can't expose those patients," said Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, medical director of Rush EMS and disaster medicine.

With a flip of a switch, isolation stations can be deployed, complete with ventilation, ceiling heaters and warm awter.

"For this exercise it was to really kind of show and demo with DECON, when a mass causality incident occurs and what to get ready for that," said Debra Shiflette-Picardi, Rush emergency management program specialist.

About a dozen hospital residents walked through the first receiver DECON drill.

Since May, the hospital has walked through 17 disaster drills similar to this one. They have another scheduled for Thursday afternoon.