Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter G.1 Introduction
Overview
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.
Most 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 standards of
care. Therefore, it is critically important to identify,
plan, and prepare for making the necessary adjust-
ments 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.1 for a complete list of
participants). The purposes of this meeting were to:
•
Examine how current standards of care might
need to be altered in response to a mass-casualty
event in order to save as many lives as possible.
•
Identify what planning, guidance, and tools
are needed and what related issues need to
be addressed to ensure an effective health and
medical care response to a mass-casualty event.
•
Recommend specific action that will begin to
address the needs of Federal, State, regional,
community, and health systems planners on this
critically important subject.
Consistent with these purposes, participants
were asked to address the following questions:
•
What do planners need to know to develop
plans that provide an effective health and
medical care response to a mass-casualty event?
•
What key principles should guide the planning
for a health and medical response to a mass-
casualty event?
•
What important issues must be considered and
addressed in planning for the provision of
health and medical care in a mass-casualty
event?
•
What information, tools, models, and other
resources are available to address the needs of
planners?
•
What other steps might be undertaken to move
toward effective planning for such an event?
This White Paper summarizes the deliberations
and recommendations of this group of experts.
Chapter G.2 provides these experts' assessment of
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