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What should an EMS system take from such a disaster?
The tornado that struck Joplin, MO, a year ago this month was a monster by any definition. With winds up to 250 miles an hour and a funnel at times topping a mile wide, it carved the city in half, destroying fire stations and a hospital en route to killing 160 and injuring around 1,000.
As the local EMS medical director, J im Morgan, DO, got a front-row view of the disaster, response and aftermath. Here he distills eight key lessons learned; for his firsthand account of the entire experience.see EMSWorld.com/10649563 or download our iPad app.
1 Maintain a close relationship with your neighbors
When a community's emergency responders face disaster, chances are they will be overwhelmed with calls for service. Having a firm relationship with organizations nearby can assure assistance. Formal memoranda of understanding are good but don't replace friendly face-to-face discussions. After a major event, not surprisingly, dialogue between EMS leaders usually isn't a problem. Carry things a step further with disaster exercises involving agencies that have adjacent or bisecting jurisdictions.
2 Train on the art of triage
In the early stages of our disaster, EMS providers learned that triage and treatment on scene can be much more effective than transport, With the extent of destruction and loss of a complete hospital (St, John's Regional Medical Center, one of only two hospitals in Joplin), this was a big decision. It's rare, but the loss of such a prime medical facility in a disaster is something EMS agencies should plan for. The field triage we used was START, which allows the provider to assess a minimum of vital functions and respond in defined ways to any abnormality. After the initial triage, as treatment continued, we constantly reassessed patients while coordinating transportation.
All agencies that may be involved should discuss a common triage tagging system, The simpler a tag is to access and use, the more likely providers will use it correctly. Our EMS crews quickly ran out of triage tags and had to document patient information in other ways. When stocking tags, have a sufficient number to ensure you will not run out,
3 Integrate an Incident Command System (ICS) and review...