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Mass Casualty Incident and Mass Fatality Incident
Published in Michael L. Madigan, Handbook of Emergency Management Concepts, 2017
A mass casualty incident (often shortened to MCI and sometimes called a multiple-casualty incident or multiple-casualty situation) is any incident in which emergency medical service (EMS) resources, such as personnel and equipment, are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. For example, an incident where a two-person crew is responding to a motor vehicle collision with three severely injured people could be considered an MCI. The general public more commonly recognizes events such as building collapses, train and bus collisions, earthquakes, and other large-scale emergencies as MCIs. Events such as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the September 11 attacks in 2001 are well-publicized examples of MCIs.
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Published in Michael L. Madigan, HAZMAT Guide for First Responders, 2017
A mass casualty incident (often shortened to MCI and sometimes called a multiple casualty incident or multiple casualty situation) is any incident in which emergency medical service resources, such as personnel and equipment, are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. For example, an incident where a two-person crew is responding to a motor vehicle collision with three severely injured people could be considered a mass casualty incident. The general public more commonly recognizes events such as building collapses, train and bus collisions, earthquakes, and other large-scale emergencies as mass casualty incidents.
Response to Acts of Terrorism
Published in Robert A. Burke, Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders, 2017
Many different types of incidents can produce mass casualties; those involving chemical and biological agents of terror will certainly be the most challenging. By definition, a mass-casualty incident is one in which the numbers of victims exceed the capability of the healthcare facility or system. Depending on the size of the facility, it might not take many patients to be classified as a mass-casualty incident. What might be routine for one hospital might be a mass-casualty situation for another. Different types of terrorist attacks will provide different types of casualties. Explosions might result in large numbers of trauma patients. A chemical agent attack might cause large numbers of people with severe life-threatening nontrauma symptoms. Biological incidents might provide increasingly large numbers of people experiencing as-yet-unidentified illnesses. Each situation will present its own challenges to the healthcare system. Additional challenges will come from those who are not ill at all, but are experiencing psychological symptoms that might seem very real to them. If emergency room personnel are not aware of the symptoms of chemical and biological agents, their tasks will be more difficult. Professionals in the healthcare system are often overlooked in training programs for hazardous materials and those for chemical and biological terrorism. The person in charge of triage at the hospital will play a key role in a mass-casualty incident. This person should be the most experienced in terms of medical treatment, decontamination, and evaluation. For example, if the situation is a trauma incident, then a trauma surgeon might be the best triage officer. Large numbers of people presenting medical symptoms might be triaged by a physician familiar with medical diagnosis and treatment. When toxic materials such as nerve agents or biological toxins are suspected, the best triage officer might be a toxicologist, or at least someone with a background in treating the patients exposed to toxic materials. An experienced triage nurse may also prove effective in conducting the triage operation, freeing doctors for patient treatment. But once again, the importance of providing chemical and biological agent training to hospital personnel cannot be overemphasized.
A Dynamic Patients Dispatch and Treatment Model for Resilience Evaluation of Interdependent Transportation-Healthcare System
Published in Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 2023
Shun-Shun Pei, Chang-Hai Zhai, Wei-Ping Wen, Peng Yu, Zhen-Qiang Wang
In the aftermath of a mass-casualty incident, patients need to be triaged according to their medical conditions and injury characteristics and then determine the order that they will be transported and treated. Earthquakes bring a sudden surge in demand for emergency response resources, thus, it’s essential to efficiently allocate limited resources. A widely adopted triage protocol in the U.S., namely START (Benson, Koenig, and Schultz 1996), gives the highest priority to patients in the immediate class, then to those in the delayed class. However, it raises doubts among some researchers (Dean and Nair 2014; Frykberg 2005; Jenkins et al. 2008; Mills, Argon, and Ziya 2013; Repoussis et al. 2016; Sacco et al. 2005), because it completely ignores resource limitations. Some other triage including the STM (Sacco triage method), and SAVE (Severity-Adjusted Victim Evacuation) can effectively improve patient outcomes. For instance, there may be so many patients in severity 3 that there is insufficient time to get to the patients in severity 2 within a time frame that would give them a good chance to survive. If we only consider reducing the mortal patients and improving the survival rate, many patients in severity 3 are likely to be sacrificed, which is against START and medical ethics. Therefore, the time-varying priority indices are used in this study.
Sorting radiology departments in a disaster management assessment with G-ARASsort
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2023
Arash Moheimani, Alessio Ishizaka, Seyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini, Sachin Kumar Mangla
Disasters are severe and sudden calamitous events causing significant damage, exceeding the affected region’s resources (Dwivedi et al. 2017). Traditionally, disasters are divided into ‘natural disasters,’ caused by natural hazards and ‘man-made disasters,’ caused by anthropogenic threats (Dwivedi et al. 2017). Mass casualty incident (MCI) describes recurring catastrophes, such as transportation collisions, building collapses, and terrorism, that put a heavy demand on medical personnel and resources (Argo et al. 2020). The distinction between disasters and MCIs varies among experts (O’Neill et al. 2020; Ryan et al. 2020). Nonetheless, critical medical services are essential for the victims of such events.