Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2009
Mass critical care: pediatric considerations in extending and rationing care in public health emergencies.
This article applies developing concepts of mass critical care (MCC) to children. In public health emergencies (PHEs), MCC would improve population outcomes by providing lifesaving interventions while delaying less urgent care. If needs exceed resources despite MCC, then rationing would allocate interventions to those most likely to survive with care. ⋯ Temporary manual bag valve ventilation and development of shared ventilators may prolong survival until the arrival of ventilator stockpiles. To ration MCC to children most likely to survive, the Pediatric Index of Mortality 2 score meets the criteria for validated pediatric mortality predictions. Policymakers must define population outcome goals in regard to lives saved versus life-years saved.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2009
Altered standards of care during an influenza pandemic: identifying ethical, legal, and practical principles to guide decision making.
Although widespread support favors prospective planning for altered standards of care during mass casualty events, the literature includes few, if any, accounts of groups that have formally addressed the overarching policy considerations at the state level. We describe the planning process undertaken by public health officials in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, along with community and academic partners, to explore the issues surrounding altered standards of care in the event of pandemic influenza. Throughout 2006, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness jointly convened a working group comprising ethicists, lawyers, clinicians, and local and state public health officials to consider issues such as allocation of antiviral medications, prioritization of critical care, and state seizure of private assets. ⋯ The objective of this initiative was to establish a framework and some fundamental principles that would subsequently guide the process of establishing specific altered standards of care protocols. The group collectively identified 4 goals and 7 principles to guide the equitable allocation of limited resources and establishment of altered standards of care protocols. Reviewing and analyzing this process to date may serve as a resource for other states.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2009
Comparative StudyTerrorism-related injuries versus road traffic accident-related trauma: 5 years of experience in Israel.
Terrorism victims comprise the minority among trauma injured people, but this small population imposes a burden on the health care system. Thirty percent of the population injured in terrorist activities experienced severe trauma (injury severity score > or =16), more than half of them need a surgical procedure, and 25% of the population affected by terrorism had been admitted to intensive care. Furthermore, compared with patients with non-terrorism-related trauma, victims of terrorism often arrive in bulk, as part of a mass casualty event. This poses a sudden load on hospital resources and requires special organization and preparedness. The present study compared terrorism-related and road accident-related injuries and examined clinical characteristics of both groups of patients. ⋯ Casualties from terrorist events are more severely injured and require more resources relative to casualties from road traffic accidents.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2009
Lessons from the front lines: the prehospital experience of the 2009 novel H1N1 outbreak in Victoria, Australia.
The H1N1 (swine influenza) 2009 outbreak in Victoria, Australia, provided a unique opportunity to review the prehospital response to a public health emergency. As part of Ambulance Victoria's response to the outbreak, relevant emergency response plans and pandemic plans were instigated, focused efforts were aimed at encouraging the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and additional questions were included in the call-taking script for telephone triage of emergency calls to identify potential cases of H1N1 from the point of call. As a result, paramedics were alerted to all potential cases of H1N1 influenza or any patient who met the current case definition before their arrival on the scene and were advised to use appropriate PPE. ⋯ Key lessons learned during the H1N1 outbreak include a focused need for continued education and communication regarding infection control and the appropriate use of PPE. Current guidelines regarding PPE use are adequate for use during an outbreak of infectious disease. Compliance with PPE needs to be addressed through the use of intra-agency communications and regular information updates early in the progress of the outbreak.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2009
Emergency legal preparedness among select US local governments.
Legal preparedness is an essential component of effective public health emergency response, evinced recently by the numerous emergency declarations issued at the federal, state, and local levels to address the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak. Although the impact of these emergency laws at the federal and state levels has been studied extensively, the scope and role of local emergency laws have not been similarly assessed. In this article, we examine key issues of emergency laws among select US localities in the context of the recent H1N1 outbreak and their application to volunteer health professionals, who are often needed to meet patient surge capacity during local emergencies. ⋯ Local legal preparedness differs based on overarching restrictions such as the degree of home rule provided to localities under state law. Some localities take innovative legal approaches to address emergency preparedness. Although beneficial in many respects, these variations add additional complexity to legal preparedness and intensify the need for predisaster planning, exercises, and coordination.