Management of Mass Gatherings

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511902482.019

17 - Management of Mass Gatherings

from PART II - OPERATIONAL ISSUES

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011

Michael S. Molloy ,

Zane Sherif ,

Stan Natin and

John McDonnell

Edited by

Kristi L. Koenig and

Carl H. Schultz

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Kristi L. Koenig: Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Carl H. Schultz: Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine

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Summary

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.

Bill Shankly, Liverpool Football Club Manager, In Sunday Times (UK) 1981

OVERVIEW

Introduction

Globally, the management of mass gatherings encompasses a wide range of activities because of varying types of events and baseline medical and health infrastructures. Mass gathering medical care can be challenging because it is provided in unfamiliar environments without access to standard hospital resources.

The material in this chapter will assist Event Medical Officers/Command Physicians/Medical Directors, team physicians, and other medical and health personnel to plan for and provide medical services at mass gatherings. In many countries routine prehospital care is the domain of emergency medical technicians and paramedics. In others there is a mixed model with physician involvement and occasionally physician direction. Although nomenclature is inconsistent across countries, this chapter will use the term “medical director” to denote the physician in charge of medical management at a mass gathering. Mass gathering medicine involves a spectrum ranging from additional prehospital resources being directed to a specific area for a defined time period to more sophisticated models in which resources remain in place over a prolonged time. This can include temporary field hospitals and the conversion of fixed facilities into sites where many medical, nursing, and paramedical staff provide care for one hundred thousand or more persons for periods lasting from 6 hours to 4 weeks.

Keywords

event planning mass gatherings medical oversight medical staff selection triage system medical reconnaissance medical resources

Type: Chapter
Information: Koenig and Schultz's Disaster Medicine
Comprehensive Principles and Practices
, pp. 228 - 252

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511902482.019 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

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17 - Management of Mass Gatherings

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