Hospital evacuation: Exercise versus reality

Large-scale major incident exercises are a great benchmark for the medical response in the acute phase of relief. The MIH was shown to be highly prepared to admit an entire evacuating hospital or large groups of patients in such a scenario. Experiences from the past, combined with regular training that closely resembles reality, guarantee the level of preparedness. Key differences between a true deployment and an exercise are the inability to train multiple days, and in our experience, a successful operation of IT systems in test environments does not guarantee their successful use during live events.