Analyzing emergency medical services effectiveness during a Campinas mass casualty simulation

Introduction:

A Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) represents an event that results in casualties that outstrips the ability of the local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to respond in a normal way. To demonstrate the potential consequences of this situation, a simulation of a traffic accident caused by a motorcyclist that ran over two pedestrians, followed by a subsequent car collision involving a drunk driver, was done in Campinas.

Objectives:

Evaluate the effectiveness of the support given by EMS at the simulation to analyze the performance of these providers at MCIs.

Material & Methods:

Each victim of the accident was assigned a student who worked as a "shadow". These shadows were responsible for gathering data about the triage, annotating the time and the color that the patient was designated. So, through analysis of this data, it was possible to see if the triage was done correctly as well as the time consumed during each step.

Results:

The average time for the initial support was 5 minutes for the 10 individuals who attended the simulation. Additionally, the triage was done correctly in 70% of cases, and the time that took for the first triage to be done was 8,6 minutes. In 40% of cases, a second triage was necessary, and in 20%, a third triage. The incorrect triages, in 66,6% of cases, underestimated the severity of the injury.

Conclusion:

Through the simulation, it was possible to identify the difficulties surrounding these types of events, which resides in correctly prioritizing the order of the medical care as a way to promote the best outcome for the patient. By inappropriately triaging at a MCI, a different order of care is applied, which can cause a negative impact on the victim's condition, justifying more simulation training.

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