Editor:

The two-day Phish event turned out to be an economic and entertainment success for the Telluride region. Despite the reports of the heavy burden on local medical and law enforcement at earlier Phish shows this year, the Telluride Medical Center was remarkably calm. Thanks to the coordinated advance planning of our Medical Center, local EMS /Fire and law enforcement officials, ample staff and resources were in place. We took advantage of the information we received from medical directors in Hartford, Connecticut., Mansfield, Massachusettes., Portsmouth, Virginia, and Akron, Ohio, regarding the number and type of common injury patterns that occurred during their Phish concerts and used that historical data to create a plan for the Phish concerts in Telluride.

The Telluride Medical Center along with local EMS/Fire and law enforcement officials held daily Emergency Operations Center meetings Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to be prepared for any possible emergencies. The preparedness training paid off. We are pleased at how smoothly everything went. Everyone followed procedures according to our plans – the whole community came together to prepare for what was thought would be a huge drain on the medical and police organizations in Telluride. As part of the preparations for the nightly concerts, a website was set up using new software called WebEOC for the purpose of keeping everyone informed of emergencies as they were happening so that each organization could prepare and plan accordingly.
The Medical Center saw just three emergency room patients on Monday evening and six on Tuesday evening. We couldn’t be more pleased that the numbers were far less than expected.

Emil Sante, chief paramedic for the Telluride Fire Protection District, had this to say about the Phish experience: “It was much easier than anticipated and it was a pleasure working in the medical tent inside the park. I hope we can do it again.”

Although there were a number of drug and alcohol related injuries, everyone was treated and released. No critical care or hospital transports were necessary for any of the concertgoers.

– Gordon Reichard, Telluride Medical Center Executive Director