Prehospital and disaster medicine
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · May 2010
Regulating the helping hand: improving legal preparedness for cross-border disaster medicine.
Medical care is a highly regulated field in nearly every country. Therefore, it is not surprising that legal issues regularly arise in cross-border disaster operations that have with the potential to profoundly impact the effectiveness of international assistance. Little attention has been paid to preparing for and addressing these kinds of issues. ⋯ To address the gaps in domestic and international regulatory structures, the IFRC spearheaded the development of new international guidelines. The legal risks for international health providers in disaster settings are real and should be better integrated into program planning. Governments must become more proactive in ensuring that legal frameworks are flexible enough to mitigate these problems.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · May 2010
-PLUS prehospital mass-casualty triage: a strategy for addressing unusual injury mechanisms.
Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) and more recently developed prehospital casualty triage algorithms are widely used, in part because they are easy to teach and learn, and can be performed rapidly. Every rapid triage protocol has inherent, significant limitations: (1) no mechanism of injury (MOI) considerations; (2) limited assessment points; and (3) no refinement in truly mass-casualty situations where transport of "minor" or "moderate" patients may be delayed. ⋯ "-PLUS" Prehospital Casualty Triage may supplement the strengths of already existing, widely accepted mass-casualty triage strategies. It does not displace START or other rapid initial triage protocols, but in mass-casualty situations with extensive delays in transport, it provides a method to identify under-triage of seriously injured casualties. "-PLUS" also presents a framework for capturing the triage considerations used by experienced medical providers, and so may provide a valuable teaching tool for training future triage professionals. Further research and field assessment is required.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · May 2010
Care of children at a large outdoor music festival in the United Kingdom.
Limited data exist on the standard of care provided for children at mass gatherings and special events (MGSE). Some studies provide valuable insight into the proportion of pediatric patients that can be expected at various types of MGSEs, but an accurate breakdown of the range of pediatric conditions treated at major events has yet to be produced. Such data are essential for the preparation of MGSEs so that the health and safety of children at such events can be adequately safeguarded. The aim of this study is to examine the care requirements for children at a large, outdoor music festival in the United Kingdom. ⋯ Mass gatherings and special events in the UK, such as outdoor music festivals, can involve a large number of children who access medical care for a different range of conditions compared to adults. The care of children at large, outdoor music events should not be overlooked. Event planning in the UK should include measures to ensure that appropriately trained and equipped medical teams are used at music festivals to safeguard the welfare of children who may attend. Further research into this exciting area is required.