The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services practiced its emergency procedure for mass vaccination Monday at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring.

During a real emergency, more locations than Kennedy would be used, up to 24 if all county residents needed a shot. But the county used just one to practice procedures that have been mostly theoretical until now.

"This is an excellent opportunity for us to see how well we can react to a mass vaccination scenario," said Ulder Tillman, health officer for Montgomery County.

Nearly 500 "patients," played by community volunteers from Montgomery and Prince George's counties, were bused in from staging areas, simulating emergency transportation procedures. Then they registered with health workers and watched an educational video about vaccinations.

After the video, patients waited in a line that snaked through the halls of Kennedy past lockers and classrooms to the cafeteria. Once inside the cafeteria, patients received their "vaccinations," which were simulated using coffee stirrers.

"It looks like it's very well organized," said Rodger Cesaro, 49, of Germantown after receiving his shot. "I have every confidence that the county can respond in the case of a true emergency."

In a real emergency, residents would be asked to report to designated staging areas from which they will be bused to emergency vaccination locations. The county would shuttle patients to minimize the traffic backups that would occur if everyone tried to drive individually.

For the mock exercise, four staging areas were used; Albert Einstein High School, Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School, St. Andrew The Apostle Church and Global Mission Church.

Only school buses were used in the exercise. In the event of a real scenario, public transportation buses also would be used.

One of the biggest factors county officials were trying to determine was how quickly a mass vaccination could be administered.

"In the event we have a smallpox outbreak, we might be required to vaccinate all Montgomery County residents in a set period of time," said Mary Anderson, a public information officer with the Department of Health and Human Services.

A research group from the University of Maryland was timing the process and county officials were closely monitoring each step.

From data collected at the exercise, county officials hope to make an accurate evaluation of the health department's mass vaccination capabilities so they can better know what to do in the event of any biological emergency. County officials expect to release results of the evaluation sometime next month.

"In an informal way, we did pretty well," Tillman said. "We processed 500-600 people in two and a half hours. But we're waiting for formal results on that."

Although things moved quickly during the exercise, Tillman added that staffing multiple emergency vaccination centers would pose a problem for the county.

"Last I heard we were about 700 short" in being able to self-sufficiently staff emergency vaccination clinics for the whole county, Tillman said.

According to Tillman, a planning group from Montgomery County's Emergency Operations Center is considering using clinical volunteers and staff from other county departments to help in case of a mass vaccination scenario.

Tillman also said that the county needs to standardize its communication equipment to eliminate compatibility problems.

These are the sort of kinks, however, that the exercise was intended to reveal, according to Tillman. "We're very glad we did it," she said. "We'll have a lot that we will learn from this."

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel and Montgomery County Police also attended.