Critical care clinics
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Critical care teams can face a dramatic surge in demand for ICU beds and organ support during a disaster. Through effective preparedness, teams can enable a more effective response and hasten recovery back to normal operations. ⋯ Broad stakeholder input from within and outside the critical care team is necessary to avoid gaps in planning. Evaluation of critical care disaster plans require frequent exercises, with a mechanism in place to ensure lessons learned effectively prompt improvements in the plan.
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Critical care clinics · Oct 2019
ReviewBattling Superstorm Sandy at Lenox Hill Hospital: When the Hospital Is Ground Zero.
In preparation for Superstorm Sandy, the emergency control center at Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) was activated. Patients were evacuated safely to increase hospital capacity, including increased critical care beds, hospital equipment and supplies, including ventilators. ⋯ NYU medical staff was granted Disaster Emergency privileges, credentialed at LHH, and oriented to LHH. NYU residents and fellows were added by the Office of Graduate Medical Education.
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Anthropogenic disasters may be defined as any disaster caused by human action or inaction. Natural disasters occur without human interference. ⋯ Most terrorist and criminal activities that create a mass-casualty situation are performed using the weapons most readily available, such as firearms or explosives. A consistent pattern, comparing terrorism with interpersonal violence, is the greater severity of impact on the victim.
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A health care facility must develop a comprehensive disaster plan that has a provision for critical care services. Mass critical care requires surge capacity: augmentation of critical care services during a disaster. ⋯ Having an adequate supply chain and a cache of critical care supplies is essential. Virtual critical care or tele-critical care can augment critical care capacity by assisting with patient monitoring, specialized consultation, and in pandemics reduces staff exposure.
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Radiation accidents are rare, but can produce large numbers of casualties with predictable patterns of injury. Casualties may suffer from a wide range of radiation exposures. ⋯ Treatment of acute radiation syndrome is supportive: including fluids, antibiotics, blood products, colony-stimulating factors, and stem cell or bone marrow transplantation. Care of radiation-injured patients with conventional trauma or burns needs to be modified to account for adverse effects of radiation on wound healing and susceptibility to infections.