2018 Trauma University: Mass Casualty Incident: How to Prepare-Mass Casualty Incident: How to Prepare

Mass Casualty Incident: How to Prepare

Pdf Summary

In this document, Dr. A. Britton Christmas discusses how to prepare for mass casualty incidents (MCIs). He identifies six critical assessment areas for MCI preparation, including communications, supplies, security, staff, utilities, and clinical activity. Dr. Christmas emphasizes the importance of having established plans in place and regularly rehearsing them, as all disasters are sudden, unexpected, and unpredictable events. He highlights the lack of current preparation among healthcare providers, citing studies that show low levels of readiness to manage various types of disasters. The document also discusses the types of exercises that can be conducted to evaluate and improve disaster preparedness, such as seminars, workshops, drills, and full-scale exercises. It mentions the requirements set forth by the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule, which aims to establish consistent emergency preparedness requirements for healthcare providers participating in Medicare and Medicaid.<br /><br />Furthermore, the document emphasizes the need for risk assessment, planning, policies and procedures, communications, training and testing, and periodic testing of emergency operation plans. It shares the findings of a full-scale regional exercise, which revealed deficiencies in areas such as communications, decontamination processes, command structure, patient tracking, and staffing. The potential consequences of these deficiencies include cross contamination, poor communication, inefficient command structure, and understaffing. The document also provides an overview of the Mountain Area Health Education Center's Healthcare Coalition and its role in coordinating healthcare disaster preparedness for hospitals, EMS, public health, emergency management, and licensed/continuing care providers. It mentions other healthcare coalitions in North Carolina and highlights their mission and support functions, such as field aid stations, medical support shelters, and event support. The document concludes with a thank-you message.

Keywords

MCI preparation

communications

supplies

security

staff

utilities

clinical activity

disaster preparedness

exercises

CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule