Prehospital Planning and Response to Sudden Mass Casualty Incidents

Abstract

This chapter describes important topics of the planning of the response for the first responders, in particular the emergency medical services (EMS), to a sudden mass casualty incident (SMCI).

The chapter includes the prehospital phases of a sudden mass casualty incident (SMCI) and discusses the limitations of deploying a scene incident command (SIC) and Regional Emergency Operations Center (REOC) for this type of events, stressing the importance of a coordinated communication system.

Finally, the chapter introduces new concepts such as “Triage Hospital” and “Save and Run” and discusses the pitfalls of patient tracking at the scene of the incident and the importance of patient tracking at the hospital.