Maintaining Preparedness to Severe Though Infrequent Threats-Can It Be Done?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Emergency Medicine
• Disaster Preparedness

Background:

• Mass casualty incidents (MCIs) from toxicological/chemical agents pose a significant risk, potentially overwhelming emergency departments.
• Secondary contamination from unidentified casualties can disrupt hospital operations.
• Longitudinal evaluation is crucial for assessing and enhancing hospital preparedness for such events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of a longitudinal evaluation process on hospital emergency preparedness for toxicological MCIs over ten years.
• To assess improvements in Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), equipment, infrastructure, personnel knowledge, and training.

Main Methods:

• Periodic evaluations of emergency preparedness in all Israeli hospitals over a decade.
• Utilized a structured tool to assess SOPs, equipment, infrastructure, knowledge, and training/exercises.
• Compared preparedness scores within and between hospitals across five measurement cycles.

Main Results:

• Overall emergency preparedness scores increased significantly from 88 to 95 over ten years.
• Significant improvements noted in SOPs and training/exercises; equipment/infrastructure and knowledge remained consistently high.
• Preparedness scores converged to high levels across all hospitals by the final evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Accessible benchmarks facilitate sustained emergency preparedness for low-frequency, high-impact events.
• The demonstrated success in toxicological MCI preparedness suggests feasibility for other potential risks.
• Continuous evaluation and improvement are key to maintaining robust disaster readiness.