AARC Contributes to Disaster Preparedness Strategy

May 7, 2008

AARC has contributed to an effort that provides comprehensive guidance to clinicians, hospitals, and public health authorities for the management of critically ill patients during a mass casualty event.

Published as a supplement to the May issue of CHEST, Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During A Disaster, offers a framework for national preparedness and prioritization in the event of a mass casualty. This emergency mass critical care (EMCC) framework for hospitals and public health officials is aimed at maximizing the effective critical care surge capacity. Surge capacity refers to the additional quantity of medical care that can be provided in times of increased need.

AARC member Rich Branson, RRT, FAARC, participated on the Task Force that developed the document. Branson, a primary author of the AARC’s own Guidance Document on ventilator acquisition for mass casualties, says that much of the AARC’s guidance was incorporated into this larger framework. “The goal of the EMCC is to assist clinicians, hospitals, and disaster planners in providing a coordinated and uniform response to mass critical care in the event of a large scale disaster.”

ACCP spearheaded the organization of the Task Force and the 18-month development of the document. They included broad representation from 37 senior-level participants  representing military medicine, medical societies and institutions, and government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The EMCC framework emphasizes some key points, says Branson, all centering on the concept that planning and preparation will help us be prepared in the event of an emergency and will limit the need to prioritize health care services. Generally the document talks about:

• the need to be prepared by developing surge capacity in our communities and health care systems.
• that gap analyses need to be undertaken to determine what and how surge capacity can be expanded
• allocating resources, or rationing care, in the event of an EMCC is a last resort but planning and prioritization can help minimize and manage scarcities.

You can read more about this multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational effort in the May supplement of CHEST, which is free and open to public reading. A Frequently Asked Questions paper prepared by ACCP helps identify key points of the EMCC.

The AARC published two special issues of Respiratory Care journal earlier this year based on the 40th Respiratory Care journal conference on “Mechanical Ventilation in Mass Casualty Scenarios.” That conference was co-chaired by Branson and Lewis Rubinson, who also headed the ACCPs Task Force. The January and February issues of the journal featured the proceedings of that conference.