PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A Pike County hospital reported the substance a prankster mailed to the U.S. Eastern District Courthouse in Pikeville this week, with a letter threatening anthrax, was artificial sweetner.

Pikeville Medical Center (PMC) treated 11 patients on July 6 after a suspicious substance was discovered at the Federal Courthouse in Pikeville, the hospital reported. It was later discovered that the substance was a powdered artificial sweetener.

Patients were treated on scene by local emergency services and put through a decontamination tent before being transported to the hospital. As an extra precaution, PMC’s Decontamination Team, consisting of hospital personnel specially trained to address bioterrorism attacks, decontaminated patients a second time before they were triaged and admitted to the hospital’s emergency department.

Part of the hospital’s plan on a potential bioterrorism attack calls for hallways to be quarantined and emergency entrances to the hospital be protected by security, allowing for more efficient traffic flow for ambulance and other emergency vehicles. Part of the Decontamination Team works with patients’ families to escort them to a private waiting area.

The hospital routinely simulates disaster scenarios but they never hopes to use plans in real-life circumstances.

“We take the possibility of any disaster seriously,” said Mary B. Combs, director of safety and security at PMC. “Our commitment to our patients is quality, and events like this let us know that all of our work and preparedness is going to good use.”

The hospital’s emergency department, which is currently undergoing a massive renovation, acted quickly and patients were treated and released within a few hours of arriving.

The Associated Press reported the prankster who sent the letter was an inmate at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Martin County, who sent the hoax letters to other offices in Kentucky.