Garnet Health, County EMS Agencies Unite for Large-Scale Mass Casualty Drill

Seven emergency medical services agencies converged on Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown on March 18 to run a large-scale mass casualty incident drill, stress-testing the county's ability to coordinate hospital staff and first responders when the worst happens.

Orange County Emergency Services led the exercise alongside Town of Wallkill EMS, Goshen EMS, Town of Newburgh Emergency Medical Services, Warwick EMS, Monroe Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and Kiryas Joel EMS. The breadth of the participant list reflects how widely scattered Orange County's emergency infrastructure actually is, from the Village of Goshen to Monroe to the Kiryas Joel community, all of whom would need to function as a single system in a genuine mass casualty event.

According to Orange County Emergency Management, the drill was designed to ensure hospital staff and EMS providers are prepared to respond effectively during large-scale emergencies. Garnet Health framed the exercise in broader institutional terms, noting the health system performs MCI drills regularly "to ensure we can quickly and effectively respond to large-scale emergencies by strengthening staff coordination, identifying gaps, and protecting patient and staff safety." The health system's post also confirmed that the drill extended beyond the Middletown campus, with staff and community partners participating at its Callicoon and Harris campuses as well.

The coordination element is the operational core of exercises like this one. Improving communication and response times between independent agencies, each with its own protocols and dispatch systems, is precisely the kind of work that cannot happen on paper alone. Officials noted the drills also serve to enhance coordination with community emergency partners, a relationship that only holds under pressure if it has been practiced.

Garnet Health and Orange County Emergency Management both thanked participating teams for their time, teamwork, and dedication to community safety. No scenario details, participant counts, or after-action findings were released publicly following the drill.