Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-txr5j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-07T01:33:38.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

(A285) Hospital Preparation for Mass Casualty Events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2011

G. Margalit
Affiliation:
Nursing Division, Ramat Gan, Israel
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Background

Hospitals handle numerous tasks whose fundamental purpose is to provide medical treatment. Amongst these, the hospital prepares for the treatment of trauma patients who have been involved in car accidents, injuries at work and industrial accidents. These preparations, although part of the operative conventions of the hospital, do not guarantee the ability to handle Mass Casualty Events which require unique and dedicated preparation and a different operational approach. This paper presents the hospital approach of handling Emergency Mass Casualty Events.

The Approach

The preparations require involvement of a national level that must participate in the definition of the activities, task assignment and preparation of an annual plan. The peak of the preparations is a multidisciplinary drill, implemented as part of the annual activity of the hospital.

The Implementation

In an emergency situation, the aim is for the hospital staff to be capable of providing its patients (and family members) the best professional care in any given scenario. To achieve the above, the hospital is required to perform the following tasks: Defining procedures, personnel training, logistics infrastructure, control, drills and lesson learned implementation. The tasks should be performed under a multi-annual plan that covers various Mass Casualties Events scenarios including: a train accident, an event involving dangerous industrial materials (e.g. ammonia spill), biological scenarios (e.g. bird-flu) and radiation events (e.g. nuclear reaction).

Conclusions

Only precise preparations, disconnected completely from the on-going hospital routine can answer the need to handle Mass Casualties Events.

Type
Abstracts of Scientific and Invited Papers 17th World Congress for Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2011