SS: We did initially, but the documentation was sparse. We had 18 of our scribes show up that night, so we were able to do a pretty good job documenting later once the patients were verified and put in the proper treatment areas.

KK: I would think that’s one of the first things that is going to go by the wayside. Take care of the patients and document what you can, if you can. With 200-plus patients, how much time did it take to process and take care of all of them?

SS: By probably six o’clock in the morning, everybody had been seen and taken care of. By eight or nine o’clock in the morning, we had pretty much the entire emergency department cleared of anybody that was involved in the incident.

KK: That’s an impressive piece of work, Scott, and I can’t thank you enough for the service you provided to prepare your team and, most important, to care for those 215 victims. What a great demonstration of the impact that emergency physicians and emergency medicine can provide for a community.

SS: The response that we got, not only our ER team but from so many others, was amazing. We had 20 physicians and nurse practitioners show up to the emergency department that night. We had pediatric emergency department doctors and nurses taking care of adult patients on their side [of the emergency department] and then over 100 physicians, including pediatric surgeons, handling the sickest patients. Over 200 surgeons and additional staff responded as well.

KK: What your team, hospital, and community did in such short order is nothing less than heroic. As unfortunate as this was, I’m sure lessons can be learned from this horrific event. What we don’t hear much about is the patient’s perspective. From a humanistic perspective, what are their experiences like? So Jeannine is with us, and she’s been kind enough to share her thoughts with us. Scott, did you take care of Jeannine?

SS: I didn’t directly take care of her. She was in Station 2. The reason I know that is I had a call from one of my high school friends stating that the fiancée of one of the guys that he works with in the police department was shot and was injured, so I asked the age of the patient and the injuries and I said, “Well, that sounds like somebody who was in Station 2 that one of my docs, Dr. English, took care of,” and it ended up being Jeannine. About two days later, I was able to visit Jeannine in the hospital.