How prepared is your town?

[DCMed124]

<cough> Katrina <cough>

we've got 3 MCI trucks (read heavily armed recreational vehicles) around the county, a C&C bus or 2 (cops like to use them for hostage situations, etc) and I'd like to think we're ok for sub 100 pt mci (multi-bus, etc) but to echo the sentiments of others here, who knows if we as a community are prepared for the big one.

just keep things in perspective... predicted snowfall in this area tomorrow of <14" = everyone and their mothers going out for bread and milk. it's ridiculous. WMD attack? remember that robin williams / robert diniro movie where he shook so fast he just stopped?

[Medic2588]

"Trying to "be prepared" for an MCI can lead into the mentality that we saw on the "impossible scenario" thread. There is always a potential or actual one larger than you can handle. We tend, especially after 9/11, to concentrate on What Ifs and Maybe's. Yes we need to be prepared, but the basic everyday service is guaranteed to be needed - we have to make sure that it is not crippled in the face of escalating "what if's". Interagency cooperation, mutual aid agreements, and planning are the low-cost alternatives to large scale physical stockpiling of goods and equipment to deal with the possible."

Medicnorth - good point about the what if's! Before I came to my current position of Disaster Preparedness Coordinator, the county where I work devised this insane scenario for a drill - there was a Sarin gas attack at a court, a riot at a jail, a car accident, a structure fire, and I think a bomb scare at the hospital. What did they learn from that? Nothing! Except that disasters were too large for them to handle. My first drill I gave them was a car accident with a FedEx truck carrying radioactive material - simple, realistic, and sufficiently taxed the system. Afterwards we talked about the scenario and related it to what HAS HAPPENED in the county. And you know what? They started feeling that disasters could be managed.

To best prepare yourself, look at what has already happened in the area and start working towards that. You'll find that preparing for what has already happened will actually help you prepare for what will most likely happen.

Devin

[Dustdevil]

Meh... I tend to lean towards the theory that damn few communities in the country are even prepared to handle routine EMS, much less mass disaster. I would much rather them concentrate on getting paramedic staffed ambulances everywhere they need to be for daily operations than stockpiling a bunch of disaster crap to sit and expire somewhere. Maybe that's just me. I'm just crazy that way.

[JakeEMTP]

Meh... I tend to lean towards the theory that damn few communities in the country are even prepared to handle routine EMS, much less mass disaster. I would much rather them concentrate on getting paramedic staffed ambulances everywhere they need to be for daily operations than stockpiling a bunch of disaster crap to sit and expire somewhere. Maybe that's just me. I'm just crazy that way.

Can you say NIMS?

[Dustdevil]

Yeah, but I can't spell it.

[AZCEP]

Meh... I tend to lean towards the theory that damn few communities in the country are even prepared to handle routine EMS, much less mass disaster. I would much rather them concentrate on getting paramedic staffed ambulances everywhere they need to be for daily operations than stockpiling a bunch of disaster crap to sit and expire somewhere. Maybe that's just me. I'm just crazy that way.

Ditto, Dust!

One of the local FD's got an MCI trailer with all of the bells and whistles about 6 years ago, and it has been used once in that time. Yes, it is capable of supporting an MCI of ~25 patients but when those events happen the EMS crews just load more of the BLS equipment in their units and drop it off at the triage/treatment area.

The local ED is capable of managing 25-30 patients at a time. Problem is at any given moment, only ~5 beds are actually available. This is a fairly good sized community hospital, but it is the only facility for 40 miles. Where they think they are going to stuff a sudden influx of ill/injured patients is beyond me. Most of the time, there isn't adequate staffing for the numbers of patients that they do have.

Even better, administration is unwilling to perform a drill because of the budget. :shock: We are an area with a history of bus rollovers, train wrecks, even huge industrial/hazmat incidents, and the current admin doesn't want to work on possibilities. On the plus side, everyone that is in the street is fairly comfortable dealing with 7-10 patients at a time. Anything more than that will raise a few eyebrows, but once they get to the hospital, the system will collapse under it's own short-sightedness.

[ALERT Medic]

I can't really speak for the hospitals but I can tell you about ems preparedness. We have an extensive MCI plan that involves mutual aid agreements and things like that but if you're asking about terrorism response, well that's a whole different discussion.

We have a team that was developed by our medical director and medical services director that involves multiple different agencies. It's called the Advanced Local Emergency Response Team or ALERT. We all train together to respond to terrorist attacks. Our service has the MCI unit, the fire service has the decon units and hazmat units, and police have the EOD type units. I think the team consists of the following agencies (hopefully I don't leave anyone out) U.S. Marshall's office, FBI, local police (SWAT), fire, ems and sheriff offices.

We also have a state of the art mobile emergency department. Some of you may have seen coverage on Oprah and other shows of our response to hurricane Katrina. The Mobile E. D. or MED1 belongs to the local trauma center. It's staffed by Md's, Rn's and paramedics.

Anyway, that's our basic MCI/terrorism response capabilities in a nutshell.

[Dustdevil]

I just can't help but wonder how many lives would be saved by taking all that money and putting it into educating and hiring paramedics in under-served areas instead of planning for an unlikely Armageddon.

[Ridryder 911]

Ditto.... meanwhile, Grandpa has chest pain and a basic unit responds...but, in case ther is an MCI we are prepared...?

Be safe,

R/R 911

[Dustdevil]

Ditto.... meanwhile, Grandpa has chest pain and a basic unit responds...but, in case ther is an MCI we are prepared...?

It's sort of like paying your child's life insurance premiums religiously, but neglecting to feed her. Sort of back asswards. :roll: