Providing comprehensive emergency preparedness training (EPT) to care providers is important to the future success of disaster operations in the US. Few EPT programs possess both competency-driven goals and metrics to measure performance during a multi-patient simulated disaster.

A 1-day (8-hour) EPT course for care providers was developed to enhance provider knowledge, skill, and comfort necessary to save lives during a simulated disaster. Nine learning objectives, 18 competencies, and 34 performance objectives were developed. During the 2-year demonstration of the curriculum, 24 fourth-year medical students and 17 Veterans Hospital Administration (VHA) providers were recruited and volunteered to take the course (two did not fully complete the research materials). An online pre-test, two post-tests, course assessment, didactic and small group content, and a 6-minute clinical casualty scenario were developed. During the scenario, trainees working in teams were confronted with three human simulators and 10 actor patients simultaneously. Unless appropriate performance objectives were met, the simulators “died” and the team was exposed to “anthrax.” After the scenario, team members participated in a facilitator-led debriefing using digital video and then repeated the scenario.

Trainees (N = 39) included 24 (62%) medical students; seven (18%) physicians; seven (18%) nurses; and one (3%) emergency manager. Forty-seven percent of the VHA providers reported greater than 16 annual hours of disaster training, while 15 (63%) of the medical students reported no annual disaster training. The mean (SD) score for the pre-test was 12.3 (3.8), or 51% correct, and after the training, the mean (SD) score was 18.5 (2.2), or 77% (P < .01). The overall rating for the course was 96 out of 100. Trainee self-assessment of “Overall Skill” increased from 63.3 out of 100 to 83.4 out of 100 and “Overall Knowledge” increased from 49.3 out of 100 to 78.7 out of 100 (P < .01). Of the 34 performance objectives during the disaster scenario, 23 were completed by at least half of the teams during their first attempt. All teams except one (8 of 9) could resuscitate two simulators and all teams (9 of 9) helped prevent anthrax exposure during their second scenario attempt.

The 1-day EPT course for novice and experienced care providers recreated a multi-actor clinical disaster and enhanced provider knowledge, comfort level, and EPT skill. A larger-scale study, or multi-center trial, is needed to further study the impact of this curriculum and its potential to protect provider and patient lives.

ScottLA, SwartzentruberD, DavisCA, MadduxPT, SchnellmanJ, WahlquistAE. Competency in Chaos: Lifesaving Performance of Care Providers Utilizing a Competency-Based, Multi-Actor Emergency Preparedness Training Curriculum. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(4):1-12.

Earthquakes are natural events that contribute to the transmission of infectious diseases. The aim of this research was to determine whether the observed increase in Escherichia coli (E. coli) bloodstream infections (BSI) during the period March-June 2011 was associated with the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

Descriptive statistics and spatial distributional analysis techniques were used to quantify patients with E. coli BSI in 2009-2011.

E. coli BSI acquired from non-catheter related urinary tract infection (UTI) was the predominant infection type, with the greatest increase during March-June 2011. Bacteremia incidence was higher in females than in males for 2009-2011. In 2011, the median age of patients was 75 years, and an increase in males acquiring such infections was noted. Spatial distributional analysis failed to show direct association between bacteremia cases and liquefaction-related land damage or drinking water contamination. A higher incidence of E. coli BSI post-earthquake in the eastern suburbs, which tend towards a higher level of socioeconomic deprivation, was observed.

A number of possible factors contributing to the observed increase in E. coli BSI acquired from UTI in 2011 were considered. Individuals with higher deprivation indices, males and the elderly may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of a major disaster with subsequent breakdown of infrastructure. These findings have important implications in natural disaster situations, and justify development of strategies to identify UTI and pyelonephritis risk factors and to manage E. coli bacteremia incidence rates.

SchousboeM, LyndsJ, AmbroseC. Increased Incidence of Escherichia Coli Bacteremia Post-Christchurch Earthquake 2011: Possible Associations. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(3):1-8.

A modified Medical Resource Model to predict the medical resources required at mass gatherings based on the risk profile of events has been developed. This study was undertaken to validate this tool using data from events held in both a developed and a developing country.

A retrospective study was conducted utilizing prospectively gathered data from individual events at Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, United Kingdom, and Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa. Both stadia are similar in design and spectator capacity. Data for Professional Football as well as Rugby League and Rugby Union (respectively) matches were used for the study. The medical resources predicted for the events were determined by entering the risk profile of each of the events into the Medical Resource Model. A recently developed South African tool was used to predetermine medical staffing for mass gatherings. For the study, the medical resources actually required to deal with the patient load for events within the control sample from the two stadia were compared with the number of needed resources predicted by the Medical Resource Model when that tool was applied retrospectively to the study events. The comparison was used to determine if the newly developed tool was either over- or under-predicting the resource requirements.

In the case of Ellis Park, the model under-predicted the basic life support (BLS) requirement for 1.5% of the events in the data set. Mean over-prediction was 209.1 minutes for BLS availability. Old Trafford displayed no events for which the Medical Resource Model would have under-predicted. The mean over-prediction of BLS availability for Old Trafford was 671.6 minutes. The intermediate life support (ILS) requirement for Ellis Park was under-predicted for seven of the total 66 events (10.6% of the events), all of which had one factor in common, that being relatively low spectator attendance numbers. Modelling for ILS at Old Trafford did not under-predict for any events. The ILS requirements showed a mean over-prediction of 161.4 minutes ILS availability for Ellis Park compared with 425.2 minutes for Old Trafford. Of the events held at Ellis Park, the Medical Resource Model under-predicted the ambulance requirement in 4.5% of the events. For Old Trafford events, the under-prediction was higher: 7.5% of cases.

The medical resources that are deployed at a mass gathering should best match the requirement for patient care at a particular event. An important consideration for any model is that it does not continually under-predict the resources required in relation to the actual requirement. With the exception of a specific subset of events at Ellis Park, the rate of under-prediction for this model was acceptable.

SmithWP, TuffinH, StrattonSJ, WallisLA. Validation of a Modified Medical Resource Model for Mass Gatherings. Prehosp Disaster Med.2013;28(1):1-7.

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake caused major disruptions in the provision of health care, including that for patients with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) using a nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) device. This study investigated the ability of SDB patients to continue using the nCPAP device in the weeks immediately following the earthquake, whether inability to use the nCPAP device led to symptom relapse, and measures that should be taken to prevent disruptions in nCPAP therapy during future disasters.

If nCPAP devices cannot be used during disasters, SDB patients’ health will be affected negatively.

Within 14 days of the disaster, 1,047 SDB patients completed a questionnaire that collected data regarding ability to use, duration of inability to use, and reasons for inability to use the nCPAP device; symptom relapse while unable to use the nCPAP device; ability to use the nCPAP device use at evacuation sites; and recommendations for improvement of the nCPAP device.

Of the 1,047 patients, 966 (92.3%) had been unable to use the nCPAP device in the days immediately following the earthquake. The most common reason for inability to use the nCPAP device was power failure, followed by anxiety about sleeping at night due to fear of aftershocks, involvement in disaster-relief activities, loss of the nasal CPAP device, and fear of being unable to wake up in case of an emergency. Among the 966 patients, 242 (25.1%) had experienced relapse of symptoms, the most common of which was excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), followed by insomnia, headache, irritability, and chest pain.

Developing strategies for the continuation of nCPAP therapy during disasters is important for providing healthy sleeping environments for SDB patients in emergency situations.

MitoF, NishijimaT, SakuraiS, KizawaT, HosokawaK, TakahashiS, SuwabeA, AkasakaH, KobayashiS. Effects of CPAP Treatment Interruption Due to Disasters: Patients with Sleep-disordered Breathing in the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Area. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(6):547-555.

The objectives of this study were to develop a novel training model for using mass-casualty incident (MCI) scenarios that trained hospital and prehospital staff together using Microsoft Visio, images from Google Earth and icons representing first responders, equipment resources, local hospital emergency department bed capacity, and trauma victims. The authors also tested participants’ knowledge in the areas of communications, incident command systems (ICS), and triage.

Participants attended Managing Multiple-Casualty Incidents (MCIs), a one-day training which offered pre- and post-tests, two one-hour functional exercises, and four distinct, one-hour didactic instructional periods. Two MCI functional exercises were conducted. The one-hour trainings focused on communications, National Incident Management Systems/Incident Command Systems (NIMS/ICS) and professional roles and responsibilities in NIMS and triage. The trainings were offered throughout communities in western Montana. First response resource inventories and general manpower statistics for fire, police, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and emergency department hospital bed capacity were determined prior to MCI scenario construction. A test was given prior to and after the training activities.

A total of 175 firefighters, EMS, law enforcement, hospital personnel or other first-responders completed the pre- and post-test. Firefighters produced higher baseline scores than all other disciplines during pre-test analysis. At the end of the training all disciplines demonstrated significantly higher scores on the post-test when compared with their respective baseline averages. Improvements in post-test scores were noted for participants from all disciplines and in all didactic areas: communications, NIMS/ICS, and triage.

Mass-casualty incidents offer significant challenges for prehospital and emergency room workers. Fire, Police and EMS personnel must secure the scene, establish communications, define individuals’ roles and responsibilities, allocate resources, triage patients, and assign transport priorities. After emergency department notification and in advance of arrival, emergency department personnel must assess available physical resources and availability and type of manpower, all while managing patients already under their care. Mass-casualty incident trainings should strengthen the key, individual elements essential to well-coordinated response such as communications, incident management system and triage. The practice scenarios should be matched to the specific resources of the community. The authors also believe that these trainings should be provided with all disciplines represented to eliminate training “silos,” to allow for discussion of overlapping jurisdictional or organizational responsibilities, and to facilitate team building.

GlowSD, ColucciVJ, AllingtonDR, NoonanCW, HallEC. Managing Multiple-Casualty Incidents: A Rural Medical Preparedness Training Assessment. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(4):1-8.

During the night of February 27 and the early morning of February 28, 2010, 15 coastal municipalities situated in two French departments, Vendée and Charente-Maritime, were violently stricken by a severe windstorm named “Xynthia.” This storm caused the death of 12 individuals in Charente-Maritime and 29 people in Vendée. Houses, agricultural fields, and shellfish companies were severely flooded with seawater. Several thousand people temporarily had to leave their homes. The objective of this study was to estimate the short-term mental health impact of Xynthia, in terms of psychotropic drug delivery, on the resident population of the 15 coastal municipalities severely hit by the flooding.

The French national health insurance database was used to calculate a daily number of new psychotropic treatments from September 1, 2008 through December 24, 2010. New treatments were calculated for each of the following European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association (EphMRA) classes: tranquilizers (N05C), hypnotics (N05B), and antidepressants (N06A). A period of three weeks following the storm was defined as the exposure period. A generalized additive model with a Poisson distribution that allows for over-dispersion was used to analyze the correlation between the Xynthia variable and the number of new psychotropic treatments.

With a relative risk (RR) of 1.54 (95% CI, 1.39-1.62) corresponding to an estimate of 409 new deliveries of psychotropic drugs during the three weeks following the storm, this study confirms the importance of the psychological impact of Xynthia. This impact is seen on all three classes of psychotropic drugs studied. The impact is greater for tranquilizers (RR of 1.78; 95% CI, 1.59-1.89) than for hypnotics (RR of 1.53; 95% CI, 1.31-1.67) and antidepressants (RR of 1.26; 95% CI, 1.06-1.40). The RR was higher for females than for males.

This study shows the importance of the psychological impact of the storm as observed clinically by health workers who intervened in the field during the aftermath of Xynthia. It confirms that administrative databases can be used to show a health impact of a disaster even at a local level. This is one more step in the direction of a comprehensive strategy of collecting information to allow the assessment of the health impact of an extreme event, the detection of vulnerable populations, and the orientation of the short-, mid- and long-term public health response.

MotreffY, PirardP, GoriaS, LabradorB, Gourier-FréryC, NicolauJ, Le TertreA, Chan-CheeC. Increase in Psychotropic Drug Deliveries after the Xynthia Storm, France, 2010. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(5):1-6.

To describe the situation with respect to nursing care conducted immediately before and after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945.

Nurses who were registered nursing staff in Nagasaki at the time of the bombing volunteered to participate in this research. Individual interviews were conducted to obtain information concerning the nursing activities in affected areas. The collected information was compared with official documents regarding the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and findings of current studies of disaster situation nursing.

Five participants indicated that starting on the day of the bombing, nursing care activities changed from moment to moment according to the condition of radiation victims, the condition of affected areas, and the relief systems in place. Under these conditions, nurses attempted to provide nursing care to victims of the bombing through any means possible.

The participants in the present study communicated a single message: that nursing care must be flexible in critical situations. Triage and cooperation with other types of medical professionals were also identified as important factors in nursing care.

MatsunariY, NakaoR. Individual Testimonies of Nursing Care after the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(2):1-5.

Severe sepsis and septic shock are common and often fatal medical problems. The Prehospital Sepsis Project is a multifaceted study that aims to improve the out-of-hospital care of patients with sepsis by means of education and enhancement of skills. The objective of this Project was to assess the knowledge and attitudes in the principles of diagnosis and management of sepsis in a cohort of United States out-of-hospital care providers.

This was cross-sectional study. A 15-item survey was administered via the Web and e-mailed to multiple emergency medical services list-servers. The evaluation consisted of four clinical scenarios as well as questions on the basics of sepsis. For intra-rater reliability, the first and the fourth scenarios were identical. Chi-square and Fisher's Exact testing were used to assess associations. Relative risk (RR) was used for strength of association. Statistical significance was set at .05.

A total of 226 advanced EMS providers participated with a 85.4% (n = 193) completion rate, consisting of a 30.7% rural, 32.3% urban, and 37.0% suburban mix; 82.4% were paramedics and 72.5% had worked in EMS >10 years. Only 57 (29.5%) participants scored both of the duplicate scenarios correctly, and only 19 of the 193 (9.8%) responded to all scenarios correctly. Level of training was not a predictor of correctly scoring scenarios (P = .71, RR = 1.25, 95% CI = 0.39-4.01), nor was years of service (P = .11, RR = 1.64, 95% CI = 0.16-1.21).

Poor understanding of the principles of diagnosis and management of sepsis was observed in this cohort, suggesting the need for enhancement of education. Survey items will be used to develop a focused, interactive Web-based learning program. Limitations include potential for self-selection and data accuracy.

Báez AA, Hanudel P, Perez MT, Giraldez EM, Wilcox SR. Prehospital Sepsis Project (PSP): Knowledge and Attitudes of United States Advanced Out-of-Hospital Care Providers. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(2):1-3.

Evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) twin towers and surrounding buildings damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks provides a unique opportunity to study factors that affect emergency evacuation of high rise buildings.

The goal of this study is to understand the extent to which structural and behavioral barriers and limitations of personal mobility affected evacuation by occupants of affected buildings on September 11, 2001.

This analysis included 5,023 civilian, adult enrollees within the World Trade Center Health Registry who evacuated the two World Trade Center towers and over 30 other Lower Manhattan buildings that were damaged or destroyed on September 11, 2001. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict total evacuation time (<30 to ≤60 minutes, >1 hour to <2 hours relative to ≤30 minutes) in relation to number of infrastructure barriers and number of behavioral barriers, adjusted for demographic and other factors.

A higher percentage of evacuees reported encountering at least one behavioral barrier (84.9%) than reported at least one infrastructure barrier (51.9%). This pattern was consistent in all buildings except WTC 1, the first building attacked, where >90% of evacuees reported encountering both types of barriers. Smoke and poor lighting were the most frequently-reported structural barriers. Extreme crowding, lack of communication with officials, and being surrounded by panicked crowds were the most frequently-reported behavioral barriers. Multivariate analyses showed evacuation time to be independently associated with the number of each type of barrier as well as gender (longer times for women), but not with the floor from which evacuation began. After adjustment, personal mobility impairment was not associated with increased evacuation time.

Because most high-rise buildings have unique designs, infrastructure factors tend to be less predictable than behavioral factors, but both need to be considered in developing emergency evacuation plans in order to decrease evacuation time and, consequently, risk of injury and death during an emergency evacuation.

GroegerJL, StellmanSD, KravittA, BrackbillRM. Evacuating Damaged and Destroyed Buildings on 9/11: Behavioral and Structural Barriers. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(6):1-11.

To design and test a model to predict surge capacity bottlenecks at a large academic medical center in response to a mass-casualty incident (MCI) involving multiple burn victims.

Using the simulation software ProModel, a model of patient flow and anticipated resource use, according to principles of disaster management, was developed based upon historical data from the University Hospital of the University of Michigan Health System. Model inputs included: (a) age and weight distribution for casualties, and distribution of size and depth of burns; (b) rate of arrival of casualties to the hospital, and triage to ward or critical care settings; (c) eligibility for early discharge of non-MCI inpatients at time of MCI; (d) baseline occupancy of intensive care unit (ICU), surgical step-down, and ward; (e) staff availability—number of physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists, and the expected ratio of each group to patients; (f) floor and operating room resources—anticipating the need for mechanical ventilators, burn care and surgical resources, blood products, and intravenous fluids; (g) average hospital length of stay and mortality rate for patients with inhalation injury and different size burns; and (h) average number of times that different size burns undergo surgery. Key model outputs include time to bottleneck for each limiting resource and average waiting time to hospital bed availability.

Given base-case model assumptions (including 100 mass casualties with an inter-arrival rate to the hospital of one patient every three minutes), hospital utilization is constrained within the first 120 minutes to 21 casualties, due to the limited number of beds. The first bottleneck is attributable to exhausting critical care beds, followed by floor beds. Given this limitation in number of patients, the temporal order of the ensuing bottlenecks is as follows: Lactated Ringer's solution (4 h), silver sulfadiazine/Silvadene (6 h), albumin (48 h), thrombin topical (72 h), type AB packed red blood cells (76 h), silver dressing/Acticoat (100 h), bismuth tribromophenate/Xeroform (102 h), and gauze bandage rolls/Kerlix (168 h). The following items do not precipitate a bottleneck: ventilators, topical epinephrine, staplers, foams, antimicrobial non-adherent dressing/Telfa types A, B, or O blood. Nurse, respiratory therapist, and physician staffing does not induce bottlenecks.

This model, and similar models for non-burn-related MCIs, can serve as a real-time estimation and management tool for hospital capacity in the setting of MCIs, and can inform supply decision support for disaster management.

AbirM, DavisMM, SankarP, WongAC, WangSC. Design of a Model to Predict Surge Capacity Bottlenecks for Burn Mass Casualties at a Large Academic Medical Center. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(1):1-10.

Social networks play an important role in disaster situations as they have become a new form of social convergence that provides collective information. The effect of social media on people who experienced disaster should be assessed.

In this study, Twitter communication during the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 was assessed. The hypothesis of this study was that usage of Twitter had psychological effects on victims of the disaster.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out in cooperation with a major Japanese newspaper three months after the disaster, and 1,144 volunteer participants responded. They were asked about their health, area of residence, property damage they had experienced, information sources they used at the time of the disaster, and their usage of Twitter. Further, the Twitter users were divided into two groups—with and without disaster experience. Their psychological effects relating to feelings of relief, stress or anxiety that they experienced in using Twitter were compared between two groups, and Twitter's psychological risk of disaster experience was estimated as an odds ratio.

Twitter users in this study tended to reside in disaster-affected areas and thought Twitter was a credible information source during the time of the disaster. The psychological effect of Twitter differed based on participants’ disaster experience and gender. Females with disaster experience reported more feelings of relief and stress as a result of using Twitter compared to females who did not experience the disaster. On the other hand, males with disaster experience only reported more stress experiences as a result of using Twitter compared to those without disaster experience.

Twitter users with disaster experience had a higher usage of Twitter than those without disaster experience. Social media might have had a material psychological influence on people who experienced disaster, and the effect differed by gender. Regardless of gender, negative feelings were transmitted easily among people who experienced the disaster. It was anticipated that the application of Twitter in a disaster situation will be expanded further by taking these findings into consideration.

UmiharaJ, NishikitaniM. Emergent Use of Twitter in the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Prehosp Disaster Med.2013;28(5):1-7.

Much attention has been given to the strategic placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation of strategically placed AEDs and the actual location of cardiac arrests.

A retrospective review of data maintained by the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS), specifically, the Maryland Cardiac Arrest Database and the Maryland AED Registry, was conducted. Location types for AEDs were compared with the locations of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Howard County, Maryland. The respective locations were compared using scatter diagrams and r2 statistics.

The r2 statistics for AED location compared with witnessed cardiac arrest and total cardiac arrests were 0.054 and 0.051 respectively, indicating a weak relationship between the two variables in each case. No AEDs were registered in the three most frequently occurring locations for cardiac arrests (private homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities) and no cardiac arrests occurred at the locations where AEDs were most commonly placed (community pools, nongovernment public buildings, schools/educational facilities).

A poor association exists between the location of cardiac arrests and the location of AEDs.

LevyMJ, SeamanKG, MillinMG, BissellRA, JenkinsJL. A Poor Association Between Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Location and Public Automated External Defibrillator Placement. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(4):1-6.

Vital signs remain important clinical indicators in the management of trauma. Tissue injury and ischemia cause tachycardia and hypertension, which are mediated via the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Spinal immobilization is known to cause discomfort, and it is not known how this might influence the SNS and contribute to abnormal vital signs.

This study aimed to establish whether the pain and discomfort associated with spinal immobilization and the maneuvers commonly used in injured patients (eg, log roll) affect the Heart rate (HR), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Respiratory rate (RR). The null hypothesis was that there are no effects.

A prospective, unblinded, repeated-measure study of 53 healthy subjects was used to test the null hypothesis. Heart rate, BP and RR were measured at rest (five minutes), after spinal immobilization (10 minutes), following log roll, with partial immobilization (10 minutes) and again at rest (five minutes). A visual analog scale (VAS) for both pain and discomfort were also collected at each stage. Results were statistically compared.

Pain VAS increased significantly during spinal immobilization (3.8 mm, P < .01). Discomfort VAS increased significantly during spinal immobilization, after log roll and during partial immobilization (17.7 mm, 5.8 mm and 8.9 mm, respectively; P < .001). Vital signs however, showed no clinically relevant changes.

Spinal immobilization does not cause a change in vital signs despite a significant increase in pain and discomfort. Since no relationship appears to exist between immobilization and abnormal vital signs, abnormal vital signs in a clinical situation should not be considered to be the result of immobilization. Likewise, pain and discomfort in immobilized patients should not be disregarded due to lack of changes in vital signs.

BruijnsS, GulyH, WallisL. Effect of Spinal Immobilization on Heart Rate, Blood Pressure and Respiratory Rate. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(2):1-5.

During a pandemic influenza, emergency departments will be overwhelmed with a large influx of patients seeking care. Although all hospitals should have a written plan for dealing with this surge of health care utilization, most hospitals struggle with ways to educate the staff and practice for potentially catastrophic events.

To better prepare hospital staff for a patient surge, a novel educational curriculum was developed utilizing an emergency department for a patient surge functional drill.

A multidisciplinary team of medical educators, evaluators, emergency preparedness experts, and technology specialists developed a curriculum to: (1) train novice users to function in their job class in a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE); (2) obtain appropriate pre-drill disaster preparedness training; (3) perform functional team exercises in a MUVE; and (4) reflect on their performance after the drill.

A total of 14 students participated in one of two iterations of the pilot training program; seven nurses completed the emergency department triage course, and seven hospital administrators completed the Command Post (CP) course. All participants reported positive experiences in written course evaluations and structured verbal debriefings, and self-reported increase in disaster preparedness knowledge. Students also reported improved team communication, planning, team decision making, and the ability to visualize and reflect on their performance.

Data from this pilot program suggest that the immersive, virtual teaching method is well suited to team-based, reflective practice and learning of disaster management skills.

GreciLS, RamlollR, HurstS, GarmanK, BeedasyJ, PieperEB, HuangR, HigginbothamE, AghaZ. vTrain: A Novel Curriculum for Patient Surge Training in a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE). Prehosp Disaster Med.2013;28(3):1-8.

Large earthquakes can cause population displacement, critical sanitation infrastructure damage, and increased threats to water resources, potentially predisposing populations to waterborne disease epidemics such as cholera.

The risk of cholera outbreaks after earthquake disasters remains uncertain. A cross-country analysis of World Health Organization (WHO) cholera data that would contribute to this discussion has yet to be published.

A cross-country longitudinal analysis was conducted among 63 low- and middle-income countries from 1995-2009. The association between earthquake disasters of various effect sizes and a relative spike in cholera rates for a given country was assessed utilizing fixed-effects logistic regression and adjusting for gross domestic product per capita, water and sanitation level, flooding events, percent urbanization, and under-five child mortality. Also, the association between large earthquakes and cholera rate increases of various degrees was assessed.

Forty-eight of the 63 countries had at least one year with reported cholera infections during the 15-year study period. Thirty-six of these 48 countries had at least one earthquake disaster. In adjusted analyses, country-years with ≥10,000 persons affected by an earthquake had 2.26 times increased odds (95 CI, 0.89-5.72, P = .08) of having a greater than average cholera rate that year compared to country-years having <10,000 individuals affected by an earthquake. The association between large earthquake disasters and cholera infections appeared to weaken as higher levels of cholera rate increases were tested.

A trend of increased risk of greater than average cholera rates when more people were affected by an earthquake in a country-year was noted. However these findings did not reach statistical significance at traditional levels and may be due to chance. Frequent large-scale cholera outbreaks after earthquake disasters appeared to be relatively uncommon.

SumnerS, TurnerE, ThielmanN. Association Between Earthquake Events and Cholera Outbreaks: A Cross-country 15-year Longitudinal Analysis. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(6):1-6.

Methods of defining hospital disaster preparedness are poorly defined in the literature, leaving wide discrepancies between a hospital's self-reported preparedness and that assessed by an objective reviewer.

This study compared self-reported surge capacity data from individual hospitals, obtained from a previously reported long-distance tabletop drill (LDTT) prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in Cape Town, South Africa, with surge capacity data assessed by an on-site survey inspection team.

In this prospective, observational study, contact persons used in the prior LDTT assessing hospital disaster preparedness in the lead-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup made surge capacity assessments (licensed bed capacity plus surge capacity beds) for the respiratory intensive care unit (RICU), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), medical intensive care unit (MICU), and general medical/surgical beds in each hospital. Following the 2010 World Cup, this data was then re-evaluated by an on-site survey team consisting of two of the authors.

The contact persons for the individual hospitals from the LDTT underreported their individual hospital's surge capacity in 86% (95% CI, 46%-99%) of RICU beds; 100% (95% CI, 63%-100%) of MICU beds; 75% (95% CI, 40%-94%) of NICU beds; and 71% (95% CI, 35%-92%) of medical/surgical beds compared with the on-site inspection team.

The contact persons for the LDTT overwhelmingly underreported surge capacity beds compared with the surge capacity determined by the on-site inspection team.

ValeskyW, RoblinP, PatelB, AdelaineJ, ZehtabchiS, ArquillaB. Assessing Hospital Preparedness: Comparison of an On-site Survey with a Self-reported, Internet-based, Long-distance Tabletop Drill. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(4):1-4.

Emergency pediatric life support (EPLS) of children infected with transmissible respiratory diseases requires adequate respiratory protection for medical first responders. Conventional air-purifying respirators (APR) and modern loose-fitting powered air-purifying respirator-hoods (PAPR-hood) may have a different impact during pediatric resuscitation and therefore require evaluation.

This study investigated the influence of APRs and PAPR-hoods during simulated pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Study design was a randomized, controlled, crossover study. Sixteen paramedics carried out a standardized EPLS scenario inside an ambulance, either unprotected (control) or wearing a conventional APR or a PAPR-hood. Treatment times and wearer comfort were determined and compared.

All paramedics completed the treatment objectives of the study arms without adverse events. Study subjects reported that communication, dexterity and mobility were significantly better in the APR group, whereas the heat-build-up was significantly less in the PAPR-hood group. Treatment times compared to the control group did not significantly differ for the APR group but did with the PAPR-hood group (261±12 seconds for the controls, 275±9 seconds for the conventional APR and 286±13 seconds for the PAPR-hood group, P < .05.

APRs showed a trend to better treatment times compared to PAPR-hoods during simulated pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Study participants rated mobility, ease of communication and dexterity with the tight-fitting APR system significantly better compared to the loose-fitting PAPR-hood.

SchumacherJ, GraySA, MichelS, AlcockR, BrinkerA. Respiratory Protection During Simulated Emergency Pediatric Life Support: A Randomized, Controlled, Crossover Study. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(1):1-6.

The prevalence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nasal colonization among Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel is not well studied. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization can be a health hazard for both EMS personnel and patients. The aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence of MRSA colonization among EMS personnel. This study will help the scientific community understand the extent of this condition so that further protocols and policies can be developed to support the health and wellbeing of EMS personnel.

The hypothesis of this study was that the prevalence of MRSA colonization among EMS personnel is significantly higher than among the general population.

This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 110 subjects were selected from two major US Mid-Atlantic fire departments. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization was detected by nasal swabbing. Nasal swabs were inoculated onto a special agar medium (C-MRSAgar) with polymerase chain reaction testing performed. One-sided binomial distribution at the StudySize 2.0 Web calculator was used. Using the Web calculator, p (H0 proportion) = 1.5%; a difference (H1-H0) ‘Δ’ = 4.53% can be detected at α = 5% and power = 80% with N = 110.

Samples were collected from 110 volunteers. Seven samples were positive for MRSA, resulting in a prevalence of 7/110 or 6.4% (95% CI, 1.8%-11%; P < .0003) compared with a 1.5% prevalence of MRSA colonization among the general population.

There is evidence that EMS personnel have a higher prevalence of MRSA colonization than the general population. This can be a risk to patients and can be recognized as an occupational hazard.

Al AmiryA, BissellRA, MaguireBJ, AlvesDW. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Nasal Colonization Prevalence among Emergency Medical Services Personnel. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(4):1-5.

The role of explosions and patient transport vehicles as sources and vectors of Gram-negative, multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) that predominate infections following lengthy evacuations after disasters due to natural hazards and in current war-trauma patients is unknown.

Damaged or heavily-used vehicles could be sources of the MDROs subsequently linked to nosocomial infections.

From January through May 2008 in Iraq, inside surfaces of heavily-used, tactical vehicles (Experimental Group) were sampled with sterile, pre-moistened swabs. Swabs, along with positive and negative controls, were shipped to the reference laboratory in Washington, DC, where they underwent culture, identification and susceptibility testing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Multidrug-resistant organisms were defined according to the standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definitions. High risk organisms (HROs) were defined as susceptible E. coli, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp, or Klebsiella spp. Concurrently, new counterparts (Control Group) were similarly surveyed in a storage lot in Georgia, USA. Groups were compared using the Chi-squared test.

One hundred thirty-nine consecutive vehicles including all available ambulances were sampled, yielding 153 swabs. Nineteen were lost or damaged during shipping. Seventy-nine swabs yielded growth of one or more Gram-negative bacteria. The amount and genotype of MDROs in heavily-used vehicles, including those involved in roadside bombings, were compared to control vehicles and to strains isolated from wounds and environmental surfaces at the base hospital. Predominant organisms included P. agglomerans (34%), S. flexneri (8%), E. vulneris (6%), Pseudomonas sp. (6%), and K. pneumonia (6%). No MDROs were isolated. Thirteen vehicles (eight of 94 experimental and five of 45 control) yielded HRO. There was no difference in contamination rates (P = .63). No HROs were isolated from ambulances. No clonal association existed between vehicle and hospital strains.

Given the implications that this knowledge gap has on military and civilian prehospital reservoirs of infection, further study is warranted to confirm these findings and identify targets for preventive intervention throughout civilian disaster and military casualty evacuation chains.

LeshoE, AkeJ, HuangX, CashDM, NikolichM, BarberM, RobensK, GarnettE, LindlerL, ScottP. Amount of Usage and Involvement in Explosions Not Associated with Increased Contamination of Prehospital Vehicles with Multi-drug-resistant Organisms. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(2):1-3..

Incidents involving the exposure of large numbers of people to radiological material can have serious consequences for those affected, their community and wider society. In many instances, the psychological effects of these incidents have the greatest impact. People fear radiation and even incidents which result in little or no actual exposure have the potential to cause widespread anxiety and behavior change. The aim of this study was to assess public intentions, beliefs and information needs in the UK and Germany in response to a hidden radiological exposure device. By assessing how the public is likely to react to such events, strategies for more effective crisis and risk communication can be developed and designed to address any knowledge gaps, misperceptions and behavioral responses that are contrary to public health advice.

This study had three stages. The first stage consisted of focus groups which identified perceptions of and reactions to a covert radiological device. The incident was introduced to participants using a series of mock newspaper and broadcast injects to convey the evolving scenario. The outcomes of these focus groups were used to inform national telephone surveys, which quantified intended behaviors and assessed what perceptions were correlated with these behaviors. Focus group and survey results were used to develop video and leaflet communication interventions, which were then evaluated in a second round of focus groups.

In the first two stages, misperceptions about the likelihood and routes of exposure were associated with higher levels of worry and greater likelihood of engaging in behaviors that might be detrimental to ongoing public health efforts. The final focus groups demonstrated that both types of misunderstanding are amenable to change following targeted communication.

Should terrorists succeed in placing a hidden radiological device in a public location, then health agencies may find that it is easier to communicate effectively with the public if they explicitly and clearly discuss the mechanisms through which someone could be affected by the radiation and the known geographical spread of any risk. Messages which explain how the risk from a hidden radiological device “works” should be prepared and tested in advance so that they can be rapidly deployed if the need arises.

PearceJM, RubinGJ, SelkeP, AmlôtR, MowbrayF, RogersMB. Communicating with the Public Following Radiological Terrorism: Results from a Series of Focus Groups and National Surveys in Britain and Germany. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(2):1-10.