Too Many Emergency Teams?

[mrmeaner]

How often does your team respond to an emergency?

[certguy]

Guys , be realistic ! In this day and age , there is no way ANY jurisdiction can keep enough personnel on thier payroll to handle a large disaster . Mutual aid takes time to put in place and in the mean time you're losing pts. Those who keep throwing New Orleans into the fray forget the simple fact that there were several states involved , not just one city . I think FEMA got a bad rap for this . The greatest good for the greatest number . 1 city versus several states . The area was huge and you only have so much resources . Also , no offense , but I think some of you really need to read the thread on EMS arrogance . :x

[spenac]

Guys , be realistic ! In this day and age , there is no way ANY jurisdiction can keep enough personnel on thier payroll to handle a large disaster . Mutual aid takes time to put in place and in the mean time you're losing pts. Those who keep throwing New Orleans into the fray forget the simple fact that there were several states involved , not just one city . I think FEMA got a bad rap for this . The greatest good for the greatest number . 1 city versus several states . The area was huge and you only have so much resources . Also , no offense , but I think some of you really need to read the thread on EMS arrogance . :x

Not saying that one community would have enough people to handle a major disaster. But if funds were distributed so all services properly staffed and equipped then in disaster all surrounding areas could afford to send people and equipment.

[Kevin N. Saisi CADC EMT]

How often does your team respond to an emergency?

What does that have to do with it?? The comment made implied that money was being wasted on teams such as ours, but we don't even have the money to place an ad in the paper. A disaster team needn't be called out on a regular basis, but it should be prepared when needed. Our community has no plan for surge capacity in any of the related agencies. Luckily, President Bush recently signed a directive requiring such agencies to develop such plans. Our service area has 75 hospital beds. If we had any kind of regional event, it would be a cluster ****.

[Kevin N. Saisi CADC EMT]

Not saying that one community would have enough people to handle a major disaster. But if funds were distributed so all services properly staffed and equipped then in disaster all surrounding areas could afford to send people and equipment.

Except a global event such as a pandemic.

[Asysin2leads]

Personally, I haven't put that much stock into these disaster response teams. In a disaster, pretty much, those who can walk out will self evacuate and those who can't, generally, there isn't much we can do for them.

9/11 had realtively few injuries. THat didn't stop a whole bunch of well meaning volunteers from pouring in and medical students setting up make shift surgery centers on the street, but all in all, few people got injured. People didn't need to be treated, they needed to be decontaminated and evacuated, and if you send a large contingency of civilians back into a disaster zone, you've just made the problem worse.

Hurricane Katrina, again, same problem. It wasn't like there was a whole bunch of people who needed boarding and collaring and splinting, they jsut needed to be gotten out of the area. Sure, the people suffering from dehydration or exposure could have benefited from rapid medical intervention, but alas, that is something more along the line of ALS.

So, in my cynical experience, the only way you can really make a disaster worse is by sending a horde of partially trained, ill-equipped, well meaning civilians into the area. In my opinion, CERT teams are the modern equivalent of "duck and cover" in the 50's, a program not designed to particulary be of any use in case of a disaster, but to help placate fears in an unnerved public.

[Timmy]

I don’t really think Australia has an ‘emergency team’ as such.

I know the Red Cross emergency team does catering, registration and temporary shelter.

If something were to happen then the normal government agencies respond, ie police, ambo, fire, and rescue. If they need help ambos will call teams of doctors and nurses from hospitals and call upon support services St John Ambulance Volunteers and Red Cross first aid volunteers but these services don’t really have people on call just for disaster response.

Here’s a link to my states health response:

http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/emergency/health_displan

[mrmeaner]

What does that have to do with it?? The comment made implied that money was being wasted on teams such as ours, but we don't even have the money to place an ad in the paper. A disaster team needn't be called out on a regular basis, but it should be prepared when needed. Our community has no plan for surge capacity in any of the related agencies. Luckily, President Bush recently signed a directive requiring such agencies to develop such plans. Our service area has 75 hospital beds. If we had any kind of regional event, it would be a cluster ****.

EASY TURBO! It wasn't a loaded question. At least it wasn't intended to be. I WAS genuinely curious about what you guys do. As has been stated by others yourself included, medical response is not and should not be your responsibility. It sounds like you perform support for emergency services already on scene which frees up people to do their jobs which is fine. What I don't know is what costs you accrue for staff, fuel, equipment, reimbursement to volunteers, etc. I jumped on a guy a few momths ago here without taking the time to understand his point of view and regreted it.

[Kevin N. Saisi CADC EMT]

EASY TURBO! It wasn't a loaded question. At least it wasn't intended to be. I WAS genuinely curious about what you guys do. As has been stated by others yourself included, medical response is not and should not be your responsibility. It sounds like you perform support for emergency services already on scene which frees up people to do their jobs which is fine. What I don't know is what costs you accrue for staff, fuel, equipment, reimbursement to volunteers, etc. I jumped on a guy a few months ago here without taking the time to understand his point of view and regreted it.

I don't recall saying that medical response is not our responsibility. In certain events, the MRC may provide members to staff ambulances, or first respond to medical calls. MRC members range in qualifications from support functions to neurosurgeons. One of the Maine units is run by a Botox nurse who cliams to be ready to handle any Botox emergency that may arise . Due to the diversity of members, involvement in a disaster may involve members doing any function up to the level of their licensure & training.

As for our activities, I can only say that we live in Maine where disaster is as rare as a humble paramedic. We have been working with area providers to establish plans in acordance with the recent Presidential Directive requiring such services to have a plan for surge capacity. Please remember that there are differences between urban teams and rural teams, Hospital based teams and EMS based teams, and teams in high risk areas vs teams in low risk areas. No two MRC teams are exactly the same despite the fact that we share promising practices, operations forms and National Core Competencies.

[Asysin2leads]

One of the Maine units is run by a Botox nurse who cliams to be ready to handle any Botox emergency that may arise

As they say in Maine, YEP.