EMS Mass Casualty Management

Excerpt

A mass casualty incident (MCI) is defined as “an event that overwhelms the local healthcare system, where the number of casualties vastly exceeds the local resources and capabilities in a short time.” Any MCI can rapidly exhaust available resources for not only the MCI but also the normal day-to-day tasks of the hospital. Each hospital should institute a surge plan in preparation for anticipated, progressive, insidious ("notice" events), and sudden-onset ("no-notice" events) disasters occurring within the community. First and foremost, in responding to an MCI, the type of MCI present must be identified. Categories include:

1. Planned (sporting event)

2. Conventional, which usually have some level of recurring frequency (transportation incidents, burn, and severe weather events)

3. Chemical, biological, radiological

4. Nuclear agents from an unintentional or accidental release or act of terrorism

5. Catastrophic health events (nuclear detonation, major explosion, a major hurricane, pandemic influenza, or others).

The keys to successfully managing the chaos of a fast-paced, moving MCI can be delineated with the organization of the 5 “S's”: “scene safety assessment, scene size-up, send information, scene set-up, and START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment).”