Revising the rural hospital disaster plan: a role for the EMS system in managing the multiple casualty incident.
Much of the effort in disaster planning has been directed toward large-scale, war-related, or major natural disasters. We helped test a rural community's disaster plan in a simulated airport accident, and concluded that this plan was not the most effective for providing the triage and stabilization in the field that are essential to the management of this type of accident. This communication argues for the development of an alternative model of response involving the "escalation" of the everyday emergency medical services system. We believe this will provide more rapid and effective allocation of the rural community's limited medical resources in the management of the multiple casualty incident.
D000401:Aircraft; D002959:Civil Defense; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000592:standards*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D006254:Hawaii; D006801:Humans; D012423:Rural Health / Q000592:standards*; D014218:Triage / Q000592:standards