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The significance of a small, level‐3 ‘semi evacuation’ hospital in a terrorist attack in a nearby town
Author(s) -
Pinkert Moshe,
Leiba Adi,
Zaltsman Eilon,
Erez Onn,
Blumenfeld Amir,
Avinoam Shkolnick,
Laor Daniel,
Schwartz Dagan,
Goldberg Avishay,
Levi Yehezkel,
BarDayan Yaron
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.2007.01006.x
Subject(s) - medical emergency , mass casualty incident , terrorism , poison control , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , occupational safety and health , suicide prevention , mass casualty , medicine , emergency medicine , computer security , geography , computer science , archaeology , pathology
Terrorist attacks can occur in remote areas causing mass‐casualty incidents MCIs far away from level‐1 trauma centres. This study draws lessons from an MCI pertaining to the management of primary and secondary evacuation and the operational mode practiced. Data was collected from formal debriefings during and after the event, and the medical response, interactions and main outcomes analysed using Disastrous Incidents Systematic Analysis through Components, Interactions and Results (DISAST‐CIR) methodology. A total of 112 people were evacuated from the scene—66 to the nearby level 3 Laniado hospital, including the eight critically and severely injured patients. Laniado hospital was instructed to act as an evacuation hospital but the flow of patients ended rapidly and it was decided to admit moderately injured victims. We introduce a novel concept of a ‘semi‐evacuation hospital’. This mode of operation should be selected for small‐scale events in which the evacuation hospital has hospitalization capacity and is not geographically isolated. We suggest that level‐3 hospitals in remote areas should be prepared and drilled to work in semi‐evacuation mode during MCIs.