Mercy Health System Opens Regional Tactical Training Center in Wis.

Tucked away in the corner of the ground floor of Mercy Health System’s MercyCare Building in Janesville, Wis., is a drug house.

Adjacent to that is a board room, a movie theater, a school and a church.

All of these scenarios are part of Mercy Health System’s new 25,000-square-foot Regional Tactical Training Center.

The training center, which opened Oct. 8, will hold courses for EMS, fire department and law enforcement personnel in rescue task force training, tactical EMT training and tactical emergency casualty care.

The different scenarios, which include an emergency room, an office, a locker room and an apartment, are all made to look and feel as realistic as possible, down to the popcorn in the movie theater, the writing on the blackboards in the classrooms, and the scales and needles in the drug house.

The training center is also wired with a speaker system that can play whatever sound effects the trainers want.

This is all meant to create a real-feeling scenario so responders can acclimate to what their senses would encounter during a real active-shooter scenario, says Jason Kelley, tactical EMS instructor at Mercy Health System.

Kelley says they want to simulate the “shock factor” responders will feel upon entering the scene.

To further the reality of the situation, the training center uses all aspects of the particular scenario they’re in (such as using a flag from the classroom as a tourniquet) and utilizes role players, manikins and moulage.

One of the manikins, Caesar, is a prized possession of Mercy Health System. The military-grade manikin is one of only a few designated for use by civilians, Mercy EMS instructor Frank Jonczyk says.

Caesar is programmed to blink, bleed, talk and give vital signs. When a trainee puts a tourniquet on, Caesar is programmed to look at them, and his vital signs will respond accordingly.

The manikin is built to be durable and versatile. Caesar is even capable of being dropped from a helicopter if the situation calls for that, Joncyzk says.

If adequate care is not given in time, Caesar’s vital signs will shut down, and he “dies.”

One of the best parts about the rooms in the training center is that they are versatile, Kelley says. The former operating rooms can be transformed into whatever scenario feels most appropriate by simply switching out its props.

The idea for the training center came about a couple of years ago at an FBI tabletop exercise that covered what would happen if there were a school shooting in the community, says Christopher Wistrom, EMS medical codirector at Mercy Health System.

“One of the things that clearly needed improvement was that we needed to get the paramedics and EMTs in to the injured people faster,” Wistrom says.

Wistrom says one of the main goals of the training center is integrating EMS and law enforcement.

Three main courses will be taught to facilitate this integration.

Rescue task force training is the aggressive response training for an active-shooter scenario. Wistrom says this training will help EMTs move more quickly from the “cold zone,” or outside of the action in an active-shooter situation, to the “warm zone.” Law enforcement will escort the paramedics into the warm zone, which may not be 100% safe at the time, to help the injured, Wistrom says.

Tactical EMT training teaches EMTs how to operate within a SWAT team structure. Wistrom says this training allows EMTs to learn how SWAT teams work, and allows them to work with the situations they may encounter. This 40-hour class also addresses the specific needs of the SWAT responders and how EMTs fit into that dynamic.

Tactical Emergency Casualty Care comes from military research from the global war on terror, Wistrom says.

“They took a look at the first couple years of statistics from the global war on terror and learned who is dying, why they are dying and what can be prevented in the first hour,” Wistrom says.

That education has made its way stateside, he says, and is mandatory as of the 2016 law enforcement academy. But for law enforcement officers who entered before that, it can be a useful asset.

The TECC class is billed as providing self-aid and buddy-aid training to help responders and law enforcement officials through the first 15 minutes of an injury.

Jay MacNeal, EMS medical director at Mercy Health System, says their team is very detailed in how they run the simulations. They do the trainings multiple times to make sure all the details are clear and help write medical operations plans and make sure their training is functional.

MacNeal says funding for the training center comes through the hospital. In the beginning, the center received a $5,000 grant from the Regional Trauma Advisory Council, but that didn’t quite cover everything.

The classes cost money for groups to attend; MacNeal says they charge in hopes of ending up being cost-neutral, which he is not sure will happen because of the amount of resources the center provides.

Because Mercy is a regional health system, MacNeal anticipates the center will draw crowds from all over the 15 counties across northern Illinois and the four counties covered in southern Wisconsin.

For other agencies looking to create a similar training space, MacNeal says unity is most important.

“It has to be a coordinated effort,” MacNeal says. “It can’t just be the police. It can’t just be the fire department. It can’t just be EMS. It can’t just be the doctors. It has to be a cohesive group of people with a vision to build the training center.”

MacNeal also would recommend having strong leadership in place both in terms of physicians and law enforcement.

Wistrom ended the press conference portion of the opening event on an excited note, happy to let the crowd see for themselves the expansive space where the region’s first responders would be getting their training.

“To train in this space for these specific threats and problems is invaluable,” Wistrom says. “There’s nothing like it in the Midwest, period.”

To learn more about Mercy Health System’s Regional Tactical Training Center and its courses, visit ems.mercyhealthsystem.org.