RIMPAC Drill Will Use Hospitals Across Hawai‘i

The commander of the Combined Task Force for the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Operations announced that on Thursday and Friday, July 12 and 13, 2018, more than 300 volunteers playing the part of patients from a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami will be triaged in mobile hospital units on Ford Island and transported by helicopter, ambulance and bus to hospitals on six islands.

For the first time, all of the acute care hospitals in the state are participating in the RIMPAC Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR) exercises.

Hawai‘i Healthcare Emergency Management (HHEM), a federally-funded program of the Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i, is coordinating the participation of 27 Hawai‘i hospitals from six islands, the American Medical Response ambulance company, and more than two dozen post-acute care organizations in the HA/DR component of the U.S. Navy’s 2018 RIMPAC exercises.