Exercise Overview

CCTA- Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attack

Exercise Scenario

On April 24, 2020, approximately 8:45 a.m., several explosions occur in highly populated areas of Sevier county, causing high numbers of casualties and fatalities. The surge of patients into the local hospital, LeConte Medical Center, quickly exceeds the hospitals resources and measures are taken regionally to disperse patients so that each hospital receives a surge of patients. Resources are diverted to Sevier county to help with patient movement, communications and supplies. Terroristic activity is suspected.

An hour later, an identified terrorist group executes their primary plan, with carefully coordinated cyber strikes to multiple power stations, hacking the operational technology systems within the infrastructure. The strategic attacks quickly overload the damaged power grid, causing a cascade of secondary outages across our region. Not only does this leave several hospitals in our area without power, but other health care facilities (including long term care, home health/hospice, dialysis, and ancillary clinics) as well. Many regional resources are still located in Sevier County.

Simulated hours/days later, power has still not been restored and after depleting resources, Methodist Medical Center, Turkey Creek Medical Center, and Fort Loudon Medical Center are forced to evacuate. Considerations for hospital evacuation, as well as affected CMS facilities will need to be taken into account.

Exercise Objectives

Surge Objectives:

  1. Evaluate participating organizations ability to process a surge of patients.
  2. Demonstrate participating organizations ability to coordinate with outside agencies.
  3. Evaluate participating organizations ability to identify and coordinate resource support under time urgency, uncertainty, and logistical constraints of an emergency.
  4. Assess use of the Incident Command system to manage the incident using appropriate ICS forms.
  5. Evaluate the ability of participating organizations and the Coalition to enhance situational awareness during an event and effectively communicate through appropriate and redundant channels.
  6. Evaluate the sustainability plan for a 96+ hour event. 

Evacuation Objectives:

  1. Evaluate the ability of the Healthcare Coalition to provide appropriate placement within 90 minutes of evacuation notification.
  2. Evaluate the ability of the Coalition to enhance situational awareness during an event and effectively communicate through appropriate channels.
  3. Evaluate the ability of the coalition to demonstrate resource support and coordination among members under time urgency, uncertainty, and logistical constraints of an emergency.
  4. Evaluate all the participating agencies ability to identify availability of specific type of beds, resources, and staff using Incident Command System in a timely manner.
  5. Evaluate the ability of the Coalition to identify appropriate modes of transport for all evacuated patients.
  6. Demonstrate the capability of redundant means of communication for achieving and sustaining situational awareness.