title: Emergency imaging after a mass casualty incident: role of the radiology department during training for and activation of a disaster management plan.
abstract: In the setting of mass casualty incidents (MCIs), hospitals need to divert from normal routine to delivering the best possible care to the largest number of victims. This should be accomplished by activating an established hospital disaster management plan (DMP) known to all staff through prior training drills. Over the recent decades, imaging has increasingly been used to evaluate critically ill patients. It can also be used to increase the accuracy of triaging MCI victims, since overtriage (falsely higher triage category) and undertriage (falsely lower triage category) can severely impact resource availability and mortality rates, respectively. This article emphasizes the importance of including the radiology department in hospital preparations for a MCI and highlights factors expected to influence performance during hospital DMP activation including issues pertinent to effective simulation, such as establishing proper learning objectives. After-action reviews including performance evaluation and debriefing on issues are invaluable following simulation drills and DMP activation, in order to improve subsequent preparedness. Historically, most hospital DMPs have not adequately included radiology department operations, and they have not or to a little extent been integrated in the DMP activation simulation. This article aims to increase awareness of the need for radiology department engagement in order to increase radiology department preparedness for DMP activation after a MCI occurs.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ferco H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3696-2554
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: 2 Radiologie Mühleninsel, Landshut, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Körner
authors.affiliation: 3 Trauma & Emergency Radiology, Bellevue Hospital & NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Mark P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.affiliation: 4 Emergency Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Sodickson
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Radiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ludo F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Beenen
authors.affiliation: 6 Emergency Radiology Division, Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
authors.affiliation: 7 Department of Radiology, Bernhoven Hospital, Uden, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Digna R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Kool
authors.affiliation: 8 Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bilow
mesh_terms: D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D004630:Emergencies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D011872:Radiology Department, Hospital; D014218:Triage