This manual is aimed to provide health care professionals, at the scene and at hospitals, as well as allied organizations, a practical and operational approach for planning the response to mass casualty incidents (MCI’s), with emphasis to the types of events that are sudden in nature, resulting in a number of injured or contaminated patients that overwhelm the local health care system. From activation of the MCI plan to the specific medical care of multiple simultaneous patients, the manual offers checklists and algorithms of “what to do” during the first minutes after a MCI occurred. The manual is designed to be adapted and modified for specific institutions according to their size and capabilities. Written by a world expert in the field of MCI management, Mass Casualty Incidents: The Nuts and Bolts of Preparedness and Response for Acute Disasters is a valuable resource for all health care professionals and institutions that deal with mass casualty incidents.

Mass Casualty events may occur as a result of natural or human-caused disasters or after an act of terrorism. The planning and response to disasters and catastrophes needs to take into consideration the distinction between progressive and sudden events. Insidious or slowly progressive disasters produce a large number of victims but over a prolonged time period, with different peaks in the severity of patients presenting to the hospital. For example, radiation events will produce a large number of victims who will present days, weeks, months, or years after exposure, depending on the dose of radiation received. The spread of a biological agent or a pandemic will produce an extremely high number of victims who will present to hospitals during days to weeks after the initial event, depending on the agent and progression of symptoms. On the other hand, in a sudden disaster, there is an abrupt surge of victims resulting from an event such as an explosion or a chemical release. After the sarin gas attack in a Tokyo subway in 1995, a total of 5500 victims were injured and required medical attention at local hospitals immediately after the attack. The car bomb that exploded near the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 213 people and simultaneously produced 4044 injured patients, many requiring medical care at local hospitals. The Madrid train bombing in March 2004 produced more than 2000 injured victims in minutes, overwhelming the city’s healthcare facilities. More than 500 injured patients were treated at local hospital after the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Finally, earthquakes may produce a large number of victims in areas in which the medical facilities are partially or completely destroyed. Sudden events bring an immediate operational challenge to community healthcare systems, many of which are already operating at or above capacity. The pre-hospital as well as hospital planning and response to sudden mass casualty incidents (SMCI’s) is extremely challenging and requires a standard and protocol driven approach. Many textbooks have been published on Disaster Medicine; although they may serve as an excellent reference, they do not provide a rapid, practical approach for management of SMCI’s. The first edition of “Mass Casualty Incidents: The Nuts and Bolts of Preparedness and Response for Acute Disasters” dealt exclusively with sudden mass casualty incidents. The second edition will expand its focus and include planning and response for insidious and protracted disasters as well. This new book is designed to provide a practical and operational approach to planning, response and medical management of sudden as well as slow progressive events. The target audience of the second edition will be health care professionals and institutions, as well as allied organizations, which respond to disasters and mass casualty incidents. Parts I and II are essentially the first edition of the book and consist of planning of personnel, logistic support, transport of patients and equipment and response algorithms. These 2 parts will be revised and updated and include lessons learned from major mass shootings that occurred recently in the United States and other parts of the world Part III will describe the planning process for progressive disasters and include response algorithms and checklists. Part IV will handle humanitarian and mental health problems commonly encountered in disaster areas. Part V will deal with team work and communication both critical topics when handling catastrophes and mass casualty incidents. This new book will be a comprehensive tool for healthcare professionals and managers and should perform demonstrably better in sales and downloads. It will be of value at the pre-hospital as well as the hospital level, to plan and respond to the majority of catastrophes and mass casualty incidents.

Mass Fatality and Casualty Incidents: A Field Guide presents in checklist form the recommended responses to events that result in mass fatalities, such as the Oklahoma City bombing, the crash of a jet airliner, or the attack on the World Trade Center. All cities in the United States will have to have a mass fatality disaster plan in effect by the end of 1999. Mr. Jensen is a leading authority in this area and provides training for police, fire and hospital personnel (including EMTs and social workers), local, state, federal and international emergency planners and responders. This book details actions that are part of a mass fatality incident response. Specifically, they are the actions that begin once life and property preservation ceases and continues through to the release of the deceased. Thus, primary focus is on search, recovery, medicolegal investigation, personal effects operations, family assistance operations, and media operations. Ancillary steps include logistics support, security, responder protection, attitudes and coping with mass death.

Problems contacting emergency services and delayed assistance are not unusual when incidents occur in rural areas, and the consequences can be devastating, particularly with mass casualty incidents. The IOM's Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events held a workshop to examine the current capabilities of emergency response systems and the future opportunities to improve mass casualty response in rural communities.

This book provides a systemic approach to acute trauma care in line with the ABCDE paradigm and up-to-date information on assessing and managing major trauma from the pre-hospital to the rehabilitation phase. The book's early sections are dedicated to identifying and managing pathology caused by massive haemorrhage, airway, breathing, circulation or neurological trauma and examining the current evidence base relating to their management. The book then builds from fundamental skills to advanced interventions so that each level of responder can identify and implement aspects of clinical practice that will be of benefit to them at their stage. This approach also explains advanced interventions that may be executed subsequently, explaining how each phase of care sits together. This has a further benefit of producing seamless care for patients by practitioners of different levels using this book as a reference point. Later sections deal with specifics of in-hospital trauma care by speciality, including the explanation of decision making processes by specialities, use of diagnostic and interventional radiology, rehabilitation and psychological aspects of trauma care. The Textbook of Acute Trauma Care also focuses on non-clinical issues relevant to trauma such as training and logistics of retrieval and repatriation, aviation considerations in HEMS, legal and forensic evidence considerations and ethical issues dealing with trauma patients. In addition, the book contains chapters from international experts on cognitive and human factors relating to healthcare and suggests strategies for training and minimising errors. This book is an essential resource for all grades of practitioner, from first responders to Consultant/Attending Physician level providers.

Hospital Emergency Response Teams aims to provide authoritative training for hospital personnel in the emergency department, as well community-level medical service personnel, assisting them in times of disaster and emergency. Comprised of six chapters, the book covers various aspects of emergency response. Some of the aspects are the National Incident Management System (NIMS) implementation activities for hospitals and health care systems and the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) IV missions. The book also explains the implementation issues, requirements, and timelines in establishing an internal HICS IV program. It presents the assessment of likely mass casualty events and potential hospital impact. The book also features appendices for emergency response team checklists, PPE donning and doffing guide, ambulatory and non-ambulatory decontamination setup, ETA exercises, and ETA drills.The book is intended to provide understanding of emergency response to first emergency medicine professionals, first responders, security staff, community-level disaster planners, and public health and disaster management researchers. - Common sense approach shows what really works, not what is theoretically achievable - Forms, checklists, and guidelines can be used to develop concrete response plans, validate existing operations, or simply expand knowledge base - The latest from OSHA, Joint Commission and NIMS (National Incident Management System) - Cross-disciplinary author team ensures material is appropriate for all member of this important collaboration