Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix G Altered Standards of
Care in Mass-Casualty Events
HEALTH SYSTEMS RESEARCH, INC.
standards of care. Therefore, it is critically impor-
tant to identify, plan, and prepare for making
the necessary adjustments in current health and
medical care standards to ensure that the care
provided in response to a mass-casualty event
results in as many lives being saved as possible.
To address this extremely important issue, in
August 2004, a meeting of a number of the fore-
most experts in the fields of bioethics, emer-
gency medicine, emergency management, health
administration, health law and policy, and public
health was convened by the Agency for Health-
care Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Health
Emergency Preparedness (OASPHEP) within the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS). These experts were joined by highly
knowledgeable representatives from key Federal
agencies and professional and other health organi-
zations (see Appendix G.I for a complete list of
participants). The purposes of this meeting were to:
Executive Summary
Background and Purpose
The events of September 11, 2001 and subse-
quent anthrax attacks underscored the need for U.S.
health care organizations and public health agen-
cies to be prepared to respond to acts of bioter-
rorism and other public health emergencies. Much
has been accomplished in the past several years
to improve health system preparedness. Many
States and health care organizations and systems
have developed preparedness plans that include
enhancing surge capacity to respond to such events.
Many of these plans assume that even in large-
scale emergencies, health care will be delivered
according to established standards of care and that
health systems will have the resources and facili-
ties needed to support the delivery of medical care
at the required level. However, it is possible that
a mass casualty event—defined, for the purpose
of this paper, as an act of bioterrorism or other
public health or medical emergency involving
thousands, or even tens of thousands, of victims—
could compromise, at least in the short term,
the ability of local or regional health systems
to deliver services consistent with established
•
Examine how current standards of care might
need to be altered in response to a mass casu-
alty event in order to save as many lives as
possible.
Funding to support the Altered Standards of Care in Mass Casualty Events report was provided by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, under Contract No. 290-04-0010.
The authors of this report are responsible for its content. No statement in the report should be construed as an official position of
theAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This document is in the public domain and may be used and reprinted without permission except those copyrighted materials noted, for
which further reproduction is prohibited without the specific permission of copyright holders.
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