Drive-Through Triage Exercise at Stanford

Could your car be a self-contained isolation compartment when you seek medical attention during a pandemic? And, is a drive-through approach an effective method to triage and screen a large number of patients? These possibilities will be tested in an exercise to compare actual times and outcomes of a drive-though method to the standard walk-in approach that was used at Stanford Hospital and throughout the country during the recent H1N1 event.

The exercise will be held Friday, June 12 (8 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) on the Stanford University campus at Parking Lot 5 on Oak Road, near Stock Farm Road (see directions below). Media are invited to attend.

The exercise will be the first test of its kind in the U.S. Federal officials hope to incorporate its results into a protocol useful for all U.S. hospitals facing pandemic emergencies. Stanford’s data will be used to build a computer simulation. Eric Weiss, MD, Medical Director for Disaster Planning, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, and his colleagues have teamed with the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control to design the exercise and create the list of data to be collected.

Throughout the exercise, all medical personnel will be gowned, gloved and masked. More than a dozen physicians and nurses will be positioned at the various screening and treatment stations. Portable digital monitors will be ready. Blood and other specimen testing will be done with a portable lab. The exercise will also test the drive-through plan as a potential mechanism for dispensing medications or administering vaccines. Other health care professionals will act as observers and evaluators. Officials from the Santa Clara County Public Health Department will also be on hand.

“The main idea is to avoid infection,” Weiss said. When SARS emerged in Toronto, five hospitals had to close because people with the illness came into emergency rooms and infected others, as well as health care workers. “We feel that this mechanism of screening and evaluating patients during a pandemic will be safer for both patients and healthcare providers and much faster than traditional methods.”

Directions: From Hwy 101 – University exit towards Stanford; Rt. on El Camino, Lt. on Sand Hill Rd., Lt. on Stock Farm Rd., Rt on Oak Road.

Directions from Hwy 280 – Sand Hill Rd. exit; Rt. on Stock Farm, Lt. on Oak Road