Imam Abdulrahman Al Faisal Hospital – Dammam has successfully carried out an infant abduction drill with an 80% success rate planned by the organizing committee to measure the success of rescuing an abducted child to evaluate how prepared the staff can be in such an incident. The Regional Executive Director of the NGHA in the Eastern Province Dr. Ahmed Alarfj said this drill was successful after being conducted in King Abdulaziz Hospital – Al-Ahsa.
This experiment was carried out after forming a specialized committee that deals with child abductions. The committee consists of many departments and divisions including the Military Police, communications and Health Awareness.
The committee held several meetings prior to this experiment to measure preparedness and to train staff to be ready if such an incident should occur.
The abduction took the following scenario: the mother exited the rest room and found that her child was missing, immediately she notified the nurse in charge who notified the head nurse. The head nurse then carried out an intensive research of the ward. After confirming the child was indeed missing, the head nurse contacted the on-call nursing coordinator who informed the communications department so they can announce the abduction with a specific code known only to the specialized team.
The supervisors continue to observe, monitor and evaluate the team then a report will be sent to the organizing committee who will hold a meeting 48 hours after the drill to discuss an improvement proposal for the next drill.