Alternative Care Sites

DSI has developed and conducted Alternative Care Site exercises around the State of Florida. An ACS site can be established to manage any type of medical surge caused by natural or manmade events. These events could include large scale disasters like a hurricane, or a tornado in a heavily populated area, a mass casualty event such as a plane crash, or a cruise ship making port with hundreds of sick passengers.

The ACS exercises produced by DSI are comprehensive, and extremely realistic in nature. We have used scenarios of collapsing bleachers at a regional high school football game, a tornado taking out several healthcare facilities, a chemical spill impacting hundreds of residents, a terrorist attack impacting an entire community; and shootings in a congregate setting, among others. Each ACS exercise walks the participants through the mechanics of when an ACS is necessary, who would set it up, who would staff it, pay for it, and all the other critical details involved in successfully opening and operating an ACS.