Advanced Disaster Medical Response Manual for Providers - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0972377204 ISBN 13: 9780972377201

Publisher: Harvard Medical Intl, 2003

Synopsis

Advanced Disaster Medical Response is designed to train health care providers to respond to natural and manmade disasters as well as disasters caused by weapons of mass destruction. It is 199 pages with full-color photos and illustrations. Twenty-five chapters divided into nine sections cover:

Mass Casualty Incident Management
Incident Command Structure
Medical Response to Disasters
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Public Health Response to Disasters
Decontamination
Medical Response to Terrorism
Care of Specific Injuries in Disasters
Environmental Considerations
Special Considerations (including Psychological Aspects of Disasters and Care of the Dead and their Families)

About this title

About the Author

Susan Briggs, MD, MPH, FACS, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and attending general and trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is Supervising Medical Officer of the NDMS Specialty Teams, including the International Medical Surgical Response Teams, and directs the Harvard Medical International Trauma and Disaster Institute.

Kathryn Brinsfield, MD, MPH, FACEP, is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Boston University and an emergency medicine physician at Boston Medical Center. She is director of research, training and quality improvement for Boston Emergency Medical Services and a member of the NDMS Boston disaster teams.

From the Inside Flap

Introduction

Disasters follow no rules. No one can predict the complexity, time, or location of the next disaster. Traditionally, medical providers have held the erroneous belief that all disasters are different, especially those involving terrorism. Thus, one of the most significant problems in mass casualty management is that we do not prepare for disasters; we respond to them. In reality, all disasters, regardless of etiology, have similar medical and public health consequences. Disasters differ in the degree to which these consequences occur and disrupt the normal medical and non-medical infrastructure of the disaster scene.

Disaster medical care is significantly different from the care medical providers deliver on a daily basis. The key principle of disaster medical care is to do the greatest good for the greatest number of patients, while the objective of conventional medical care is to do the greatest good for the individual patient.

Disasters, both natural and man-made (including terrorism), encompass the spectrum of possible threats. Terrorism, not surprisingly, is the most challenging for medical providers. Weapons of mass destruction creating "contaminated environments" are the greatest challenge of all.

A consistent medical approach to disasters, based on an understanding of their common features and the response expertise they require, is becoming the accepted practice throughout the world. This strategy, called the Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) response, has the primary objective of reducing the mortality caused by the disaster. All medical personnel need to incorporate the key principles of the MCI response in their training, given the complexity of today s disasters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Mass casualty incidents (MCIs) are events incurring casualties large enough to disrupt the normal deployment of the emergency healthcare services of the affected community. The severity and diversity of injuries, in addition to the number of victims, will be a major factor in determining whether a mass casualty incident overwhelms the local medical and public health infrastructure.

Mass casualty incidents have traditionally implied a limited geographic and demographic scope and a positive equilibrium between needs and resources. In civilian disasters occurring in the developed world, where trained medical personnel, transport, and well-equipped facilities can be mobilized in a timely fashion, appropriate care is expected to be rendered to all victims.

Unfortunately, today s complex disasters, especially those disasters involving terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, or nuclear) may result in an "austere environment." An austere environment is a setting where resources, transport, access, or other aspects of the physical, social, or economic environments impose severe constraints on the adequacy of immediate care for the population in need. This concept of austerity is dynamic, depending upon numbers, severity, and kinds of victims. Weapons of mass destruction that contaminate environments have the greatest potential to produce the ultimate austere environment and casualties in such numbers that would overwhelm any emergency medical system. Emergency medical responders will be unable to bring victims into hospitals for fear of further contaminating medical facilities.....

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Medical Intl
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0972377204
• ISBN 13: 9780972377201
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 199
• Editor: Briggs Susan M., Brinsfield Kathryn H.