McCurtain County Memorial Hospital evacuated on Thursday after receiving a bomb threat from an unidentified individual, the second threat in the last two weeks.
“In a short period of time, all patients were evacuated to an offsite location in an abundance of caution. All staff left MMH and joined our patients and the designated evacuation site. Our team of medical doctors, nurse practitioners and nursing staff accompanied the patients and remained with them while law enforcement searched and cleared the hospital,” said MMH Chief Executive Officer, Brian Whitfield.
According to hospital, an unidentified individual called into the hospitals registration department and stated there was a bomb inside of the hospital. The registration team took immediate action to inform administration and immediately, followed protocol to institute an emergency evacuation of the property and contact law enforcement.
“A number of agencies responded to MMH. These agencies included, but are not limited to, the Idabel Police Department, McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office, the Choctaw Nation Tribal Police and others. Within an hour, the premises were cleared and patients, as well as staff, returned to the premises,” said Whitfield.
Whitfield said that in sharing this information, he hopes that whomever is behind the calls will “consider the impact that this attempt to cause panic has had on real peoples lives.”
“We had a patient experiencing an end of life situation. The patient was joined by the family, spending their last moments with this patient, when the threat was called in, resulting in evacuation. The family, already devastated at their impending loss, had to leave. We also had to move this particular patient who should have been left alone and allowed to rest in peace.”
Additionally, while returning patients to the hospital, after the all-clear, another patient presented at an unstaffed, unprepared Emergency Room, with a potential cardiac arrest.
“Fortunately, because of the rapid response to the hospital ER by medical staff, we were able to meet this patients needs and avoid a potentially bad outcome. I do not share these details for sympathy for the hospital or for any other reason but to tell you that making calls of this nature to a healthcare facility can cost people their lives.”
He continued, “These disruptions in service to our community has a significant impact on us financially and also results in unavailable services to patients seeking outpatient services like lab, radiology and therapy. So many suffer as the result of such selfish acts and attempts to disrupt. We will recover and we will rise above these challenges but please, consider the impact on our patients and this community.”
Effective immediately, Whitfield has instituted “very stiff” security measures that will include a hard lockdown at the hospital that remain in effect until further notice.
The following security measures are in place:
Thanks to McCurtain County Commissioner, Chairman John Wayne Williams, a metal detector was delivered to the hospital today and is at the Emergency Room waiting area entrance. All employees and visitors must enter and exit through that entrance. There will be no bags, purses, backpacks or other carrying cases allowed inside the hospital.
All outpatient services will continue but only the patient seeking outpatient services may enter the hospital and are subject to going through the metal detectors. Once the outpatient procedure is complete, we will escort the patient out of the hospital and loitering will not be permitted.
Visitation will be restricted to two visitors, per patient, per day. All visitors will be subject to entering through the metal detector and will not be allowed to bring in any purses, bags, backpacks, etc.
The MMH Cafe will be open to the public, but all must enter through the same Emergency Room waiting entrance and are subject to passing through the metal detector. No knives, guns, metal devices, bags, purses, backpacks, etc will be allowed in. Guests may enter, enjoy their meal and leave thereafter. Loitering or moving about the hospital will not be permitted.
Patient who present to the ER for treatment must come into the hospital alone, unless under the age of 18, and may be accompanied by one adult. There will be no exceptions to this policy unless administration approves and a end of life situation is possible.
Our goal is to not impeded on visitation or access to your hospital but we have to put safety measures in place to avoid evacuations. The FBI and other law enforcement is working to determine who is making these calls and causing disruption and we are confident that law enforcement will find out who is responsible. We also will push for very aggressive prosecution of anyone determined to be involved.
MMH will continue to do what we do best and that’s provide healthcare. We will always strive to be transparent about our challenges or activities that disrupt our operations but to the end, I must protect our staff and patients.
This afternoon, a local blogger who seemed to completely disregard patient and staff safety, posted on social media the location where patients were relocated to. This is disturbing and selfish. You should be ashamed as your actions could have placed multiple people in danger. Our staff and patients are most vulnerable when moved outside of the hospital and for you to post such sensitive information, just because you have little more to do than sit and listen to radio traffic, then post information to social media for your three minutes of fame, is, quite frankly, selfish. The area is limited on where we could relocate patients in such a situation and we are now forced to change locations and will for future events.
“I want to thank every staff member, law enforcement, EMS member, city/county official who offered help and did so. McCurtain County is a great place to live and work and we will continue to come together as a community when we are faced with challenges. We are a strong community that remains strong.”
To read the full press release, click here
