Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Apr 2012
Leadership and use of standards by Australian disaster medical assistance teams: results of a national survey of team members.
It is likely that calls for disaster medical assistance teams (DMATs) will continue in response to international disasters. ⋯ In this study of Australian DMAT members, there was unanimous support for a clear command structure in future deployments, with clearly defined team roles and reporting structures. This should be supported by clear identification of team leaders to assist inter-agency coordination, and by leadership training for DMAT commanders. Members of Australian DMATs would also support the development and implementation of meaningful, evidence-based standards. More work is needed to identify or develop actual standards and the measures of effectiveness to be used, as well as the contents and nature of leadership training.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Apr 2012
Disaster metrics: quantification of acute medical disasters in trauma-related multiple casualty events through modeling of the Acute Medical Severity Index.
The interaction between the acute medical consequences of a Multiple Casualty Event (MCE) and the total medical capacity of the community affected determines if the event amounts to an acute medical disaster. ⋯ A novel quantitative taxonomy in MCE has been proposed by modeling the Acute Medical Severity Index (AMSI). This model accounts for both hospital and prehospital systems, and quantifies acute medical disasters. Prospective applications of various components of this model are encouraged to further verify its applicability and validity.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Apr 2012
Disaster metrics: a proposed quantitative model for benchmarking prehospital medical response in trauma-related multiple casualty events.
Quantitative benchmarking of trauma-related prehospital response for Multiple Casualty Events (MCE) is complicated by major difficulties due to the simultaneous occurrences of multiple prehospital activities. ⋯ A new quantitative model for benchmarking prehospital response to MCE in trauma-related MCE is proposed. Prospective studies of this model are needed to validate its applicability.