Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
patient care personnel through neighborhood emer-
gency help centers and acute care centers. Activ-
ities that can help in the search for additional
qualified personnel in a time of need include the
following:
of an emergency? Are all of the region's
health care organizations relying on the
same vendors?
Source: Joint Commission on Accreditation
of Healthcare Organizations:
Guide to Emer-
gency Management Planning in Health Care
.
Oakbrook Terrace,
Recruiting from retired or currently unemployed
but qualified volunteer providers within the
community and state
Making use of reserve military medical and nursing
providers and other responders, as well as an
expanded group of providers, such as veteri-
narians, dentists and dental auxiliary providers,
pharmacists, and health professional students
Reallocating providers from nonemergency care
and nonemergency sites to emergency response
assignments and from unaffected regions to
affected regions (this will involve identifying
skill sets of each practitioner group [such as
paramedics and nurse midwives], so as to opti-
mize reassignment potential)
Creating and training a pool of nonmedical respon-
ders to support health and medical care opera-
tions
Making adequate provisions to protect providers
(and their families) who serve in mass casualty
event situations to ensure their willingness to
respond
IL:
Joint Commission
Resources, 2002.
The catastrophe in New Orleans showed the
nation nothing if not the reality that disasters can
cripple entire regions. Institutions must put coop-
erative agreements in place with state and regional
partners and also work with federal representatives
who can ensure that sufficient resources are avail-
able to handle a widespread emergency.
Certain locations in the country are already
doing this. For example, New York City under-
stands, because of its recent history and prox-
imity to other states, that a disaster that occurs
inside the city could also impact New York State,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania if the city's ability
to respond to the emergency is overwhelmed by
the severity of the disaster. As a consequence, a
significant amount of regional planning occurs in
that city.
Perhaps the best known source of supplementary
medical personnel is the Medical Reserve Corps
(MRC) Program, which organizes the services of
more than 27,000 practicing and retired physi-
cians, nurses, and other health professionals as
well as ordinary citizens who wish to volun-
teer in community public health efforts and
help during large-scale emergencies. Founded
by President George W. Bush in 2002 in
cooperation with the USA Freedom Corps, the
MRC specializes in identifying, training, and
organizing volunteer medical and public health
professionals.
Two additional resources exist for the recruit-
ment of medical staff in a worst-case scenario.
The first is the National Disaster Medical
System (NDMS), established in the 1980s by
the U.S. Departments of Health and Human
Services and Veterans Affairs and the Federal
Obtaining needed personnel and supplies
One of the key components of an effective health
and medical care response is ensuring an adequate
number of qualified health care providers who are
available and willing to serve in a mass casualty
event. Having sufficient supplies, pharmaceuticals,
and equipment is also critical.
Obtaining a sufficient number of staff
members
A model for determining the number of staff
needed for a surge facility is the Modular Emer-
gency Medical Stem (MEMS) designed by the U.S.
Department of Defense. The system is based on
the incident command system, which is commonly
used by the emergency medical services commu-
nity. The system sets up a network used to access
