Mass Casualty

Prepared By Hussien Mansour Ali

DisasterA disaster is a natural or human-made (or technological)

hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment.

A disaster is an event that results in a demand for services that exceeds available resources.

UN Disaster Management Training Program’s definition :

A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses that exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using only its own resources.

Causes off disaster

1. Human activities play a role in the frequency and severity of disasters.

2. A natural disaster is a disruption in the balance of the environment.

Types Of Disasters

Mass casualty

A mass casualty incident is defined as an event which

generates more patients at one time than locally available

resources can manage using routine procedures. It

requires exceptional emergency arrangements and

additional or extraordinary assistance.

Mass Casualty Importance

High number of casualties with serious injuries.

Insufficient availability of resources and medical

personnel to move in a timely manner.

Inability to handle the wounded with the usual criteria.

International policies

Every country develops such as programs or health policies

according to the safety needs and danger factors for mass

casualty incidence due to disasters.

Even WHO build a Mass Casualty Management Systems and

defined acquired (Strategies and guidelines) for such as

program.

Mass Casualty incidence programEmergency planning process

Define project •Consider social, cultural, economic, demographic situation and expected emergencies.

Planning Group •Team of emergency response.

Analyze Potential Problems • country vulnerability to which dangers.

Analyze Resources •Resources available to build such as program (human and financial).

Role & Responsibilities• Coordination mechanisms between members or

agencies, ….etc.

Develop Strategy •Technical and administrative organization for the emergency preparedness.

Emergency Preparedness And Response

1. Agencies and responders:

2. Triage:

3. Treatment:

4. Transport:

Agencies and responders

TriageTriage = establishing priorities of patient care for urgent

treatment based on the severity of their condition while allocating limited resources.

S.M.A.R.T Triage

Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment

Triage categoriesInitial triage:

Secondary triage:

•Minor injury (walking wounded)GREEN • Delayed- can waitYELLOW

• Immediate!RED BLACK

dead

Components of Assessment

1. Ambulation.

2. Respirations.

3. Perfusion.

4. Mental status.

Treatment: given in area of incidence if available or after transporting patients to health facilities.

Transport:

General View Many lives could be saved if the affected communities were

better prepared, with an organized scalable response system already in place. In addition, survivors of mass casualty incidents often suffer disabilities or health impairment – physical or psychological. These can severely strain the health sector. Again, much of this is avoidable.

In September 2006, a Global Consultation on Mass Casualty Management was held in Geneva at WHO headquarters.

Experience shows that the community is the first to provide emergency assistance in such incidents.

For this reason, preparedness planning increasingly emphasizes building capacity (human, organizational and infrastructural) at the community level. Empowering communities to develop emergency management plans for mass casualty incidents requires strong involvement by health authorities at all levels, especially the national level, as well as support from other sectors.

When disaster strikes, nurses are needed.ANA has policy, resources, and educational opportunities

for nurses on disaster preparedness. When we are a prepared profession, we can cope and help our communities recover from disasters better, faster, and stronger.