As police sought the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the recent emergency preparedness training of eight Southcoast Health System employees was put to the test.

Two Marion residents and a Mattapoisett man were among the eight people who completed the course, offered and paid for by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

On Friday, April 19, St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford went into a state of high alert as the manhunt for suspect and former University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth student Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was underway.

For Carme Tripp, director of oncology nursing, the situation reinforced Southcoast Health System’s need to have comprehensive policies and procedures ready for catastrophes.

At St. Luke’s, staff members exercised an “abundance of caution” throughout the day Tripp said.

“I takes a very small number of critically injured people to cause a disaster for our staff,” she said. Tripp moved to Marion with her husband, Randy Tripp, director of business operations, two years ago from North Carolina. Tripp has an extensive career in health care.

Thankfully, the situation was a non-event for the area, but responding effectively to any disaster is a major focus for administrators and staff she said.

Training participants spent four days at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Ala. They spent two days in a classroom and two days performing drills at a The Noble Army Hospital.

The site is the only facility in the nation dedicated to preparing hospital and health care professionals for disaster response.

“[The training] was about learning how to position your facility to respond to any event,” she said. “It was about looking at what we need to keep all three hospitals functioning.”

In addition to St. Luke’s, those hospitals include Charlton Memorial in Fall River and Tobey Hospital, in Wareham.

Recently, weather events like hurricanes and blizzards have challenged patients and staff. Mr. Tripp said his first time at the training opened his eyes to the importance of communication during an emergency.

Tobey Hospital, he said, received many people last February, who arrived for essentials like heat and shelter.

“Sometimes it becomes more just keeping people healthy. It’s about keeping the lights on,” he said. A lot of people showed up at our door and we didn’t turn them away.”

The federally funded training program is offered several times a year. According to Southcoast officials, more than 100 employees from many different departments have completed the course.

Mattapoisett resident, Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer Robert Caldas, also participated in the training.