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This Week in EMS: A Recap for Oct. 14 - 20, 2006
A milestone event for EMS took place this week that could lead to changes in major-incident preparedness. An online EMS Magazine report outlines a meeting in which urban EMS leaders from across the nation gathered in D.C. to improve their ability to respond to large-scale incidents:
40 Years On, Urban Chiefs Gather to Examine Major-Incident Preparedness
It was 40 years ago that the National Academy of Sciences issued its seminal "white paper" and set in motion the development of modern American EMS. Now, for the first time since, top officials representing systems in the U.S.'s largest cities have come together to examine what hampers their ability to respond to large-scale incidents--and figure out what to do about it.
Operations chiefs, officers, directors and administrators from 49 big-city systems summited in Washington, DC, on October 16--17 as part of the National EMS Preparedness Initiative, a federally funded effort to identify and develop solutions for impediments to EMS readiness for major disasters and attacks. They worked in interactive groups in an environment organizers strove to keep free of outside pressures, and despite coming from an array of provider models--fire-based, third service and private--they quickly reached common ground on key barriers and potential steps toward resolving them.
"We've never had a forum where leaders of big-city systems could connect like this--that's one of the greatest things to come out of it," says Gregg Lord, coinvestigator and Associate Director of EMS Policy for the project. "We utilized an interactive voting technology that allowed the attendees to drive the issues, solutions and strategies they felt were important. They had the freedom to do and say whatever they wanted, and they arrived at a lot of consensus over what the issues were and what the solutions might be."
The Homeland Security Policy Institute at The George Washington University, which is conducting the project, will be releasing the outcomes of the summit after they've been delivered to the Department of Homeland Security, which is funding the two-year effort. Meanwhile, a second summit is planned for spring 2007. This one will widen scope to include constituency organizations and federal officials involved in EMS regulation and activities. Recommendations for improving EMS response to large-scale incidents will be made to DHS based upon the output of the summit attendees.
For more, see www.nationalemspreparedness.org.
--From EMS Magazine staff
Other major U.S. news this week was the coming together of rescue personnel from the Amish school shooting earlier this month. The responders met for a press briefing Monday to discuss what they found when they arrived on the scene, and how it has affected them since.
The responders said they will never be able to erase the images of the 10 young girls, ages 6 to 13, who were gunned down. "Those images will stay with all of us, and everyone will deal with it in a different way," said Bart Township Fire Chief Curt Woerth. "But we will lean on each other."
Rescuers have undergone multiple debriefings, and counseling will continue as long as necessary.
One rescuer said that as the reality of the situation hit home, he shifted into "autopilot" on the scene. "Nothing went through my mind," said paramedic Ian Solodky of Lancaster Emergency Medical Services Association. "I knew what I needed to do, and I did it."
To read more about how the rescue unfolded, visit the full article on EMSResponder.com.
The latest major emergency news came this week out of Rome, where rescuers responded to the city's worst ever underground train crash.
Two trains collided Tuesday morning at the Piazza Vittorio subway station, killing one person and injuring about 150. Within 90 minutes, the injured were extracted from the wreckage and rushed to hospitals.
It's clear that the city's disaster training has paid off. According to reports, the city's security and emergency services have been preparing for terror attacks since 2001, including a scenario where a bomb hits a subway station. Although Tuesday's disaster was not a terrorist incident, similar training applied. Rescuers successfully transported 110 people to hospitals and set up a field hospital where they treated dozens with light injuries.
Further details on the incident are available online. In addition, the city's emergency services were praised on Tuesday for their efficient response.
Other popular news this week:
