News

Officials Say Calif. Spice Outbreak Acted as Rehearsal for Mass Casualty Event

Susan Abram

09/21/2016

Sept. 20--The dozens of people who needed medical help after smoking a designer drug last month on Skid Row proved that more preparation for mass casualty events is key to strengthening emergency services, health officials concluded in a report presented to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The findings came after an evaluation of emergency medical services and emergency room capacity was requested by Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis earlier this month after nearly 70 people were sickened in downtown L.A.'s Skid Row.

All had smoked Spice, a designer drug created to mimic the effects of marijuana. Dozens of the ill were transported to local hospitals, straining city services, according to Dr. Marc Eckstein, medical director for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Eckstein said at the scene during one of the Spice incidents that ambulances and firefighters were being diverted to Skid Row because of the drug. On one day, 12 paramedic ambulances and 75 firefighters were in the area, "taxing city resources," he said.

In addition, more than two dozen people from the Skid Row neighborhood were transported to hospitals between Aug. 19 and 22, because of Spice. One death is being investigated for a possible link to the drug.

But the illnesses proved that protocols and plans have to be examined again and again, said Dr. Mitch Katz, director for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

"There will be more episodes like Spice," Katz said, referring to new drugs that continue to emerge. "We do have plans, but what the Spice incident shows is that you can't rehearse enough and you can't relook at the plans enough, so we'll take that as our reason to take another look at the plans."

Katz added that the collaboration between the county's departments of public health, health services and mental health has strengthened the system for mass casualty incidents. Katz oversees all three departments, which merged last year into one agency under a plan introduced by Supervisor Michael Antonovich and approved by the Board of Supervisors.

"The issue with Spice gave us a chance to rehearse our ability to deal with mass casualty incidents," Katz noted. "The protocols that we have put in place worked well in the sense that the individuals affected by Spice were sent to a wide set of different hospitals."

The Los Angeles Fire Department provides services to the Skid Row area and responded to 350,000 incidents in 2015, a 7.8 percent increase from 2014. Fire officials say the increase is due to growing numbers of newly insured, and an increase in the numbers of homeless people in need of care, especially those with mental health needs. But the department is equipped to handle a mass emergency, according to a report presented to the board.

Still, there are challenges across the county, which has 100 acute care hospitals, 74 of which have emergency departments designated to receive patients.

"The complexity of L.A. County's health care community makes medical surge planning extremely challenging," according to the report. But both the city and county of Los Angeles continue to strengthen plans, the report concluded.

The county's Department of Public Health also plans to launch an education campaign to discourage young people from smoking Spice and other designer drugs.