Responding to a Multiple-Casualty Incident: Room for Improvement

One of the challenges of crafting a disaster response is that plans are based on what is most likely to occur. Because disasters and multiple-casualty incidents often happen without warning, there is little opportunity to actually research the event and its potential response. As a result, much of disaster planning comes from evaluating the strengths and opportunities of the response to actual events. Here, Sloan provides an overview of a hospital's experience by examining emergency medical service response, communications, hospital preparedness, staffing, surge capacity, patient and family relations, and lessons learned.