Banner Health’s south campus holding active shooter drill on Tuesday

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In an emergency, people go to hospitals, but if an emergency like an active shooter situation happened at a hospital, Banner Health wants to be prepared.

Denise Whisman, Banner’s emergency management program manager for the Tucson area said an actor will pretend to be an active shooter and nobody knows where the actor will be or which part of the hospital will have to shut down because of it.

“To ensure that our staff and the community and our community partners are all as safe as we can be and prepared,” she said about the drill.

When it comes to training, Whisman said staff train regularly with security on how to respond to an active shooter.

She said this drill would help enhance their learning.

“We’re hoping that they become really comfortable with their run, hide, fight plans, they become comfortable with how a lockdown works and that they understand that we’re working to keep them safe,” she said.

The Tucson Police Department and the Tucson Fire Department will also be participating in the drill and trying to find the actor who is playing the shooter.

“And be able to practice their response inside of a healthcare facility and then work on their communication together as well as their communication with us,” Whisman said.

As for how often they do the drill, Whisman said it’s their first drill since the pandemic but said they typically do a hazard drill once a year, though it might not specifically be an active shooter drill.

“So that we know if there’s any holes in those plans…how to fix those,” she said.

She said at the end of the day their main goal is to prepare staff for a dangerous situation, saying

“That they understand that we’re working to keep them safe.”

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