Chapter 47: Ready for Review

  • Major incidents require the involvement and coordination of multiple jurisdictions, functional agencies, and emergency response disciplines.
  • The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a consistent nationwide template to enable federal, state, and local governments, as well as private-sector and nongovernmental organizations, to work together effectively and efficiently. The NIMS is used to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity, including acts of catastrophic terrorism and hazardous materials (HazMat) incidents.
  • The major NIMS components are command and management, preparedness, resource management, communications and information management, supporting technologies, and ongoing management and maintenance.
  • The purpose of the incident command system (ICS) is to ensure responder and public safety, achieve incident management goals, and ensure the efficient use of resources.
  • Using the ICS gives you a modular organizational structure that is built on the size and complexity of the incident.
  • Preparedness involves the decisions made and basic planning done before an incident occurs.
  • Your agency should have written disaster plans that you are regularly trained to carry out.
  • General ICS staff roles include command, finance, logistics, operation, and planning.
  • At incidents that have a significant medical factor, the incident commander should appoint someone as the medical branch director who will supervise triage, treatment, and transport of injured patients.
  • A multiple-casualty incident refers to any call that involves three or more patients, any situation that places such a great demand on available equipment or personnel that the system would require a mutual aid response, or any incident that has a potential to create one of the previously mentioned situations.
  • The goal of triage is to do the greatest good for the greatest number. This means that the triage assessment is brief and patient condition categories are basic.
  • The four common triage categories are immediate (red), delayed (yellow), minimal (green), and expectant (black; likely to die or dead).
  • It is vital to tag each patient during triage to help keep an accurate record of their condition. Triage tags become part of the patient’s medical record.
  • START triage (Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment) uses a limited assessment of the patient’s ability to walk, respiratory status, hemodynamic status, and neurologic status to quickly and efficiently triage patients.
  • JumpSTART triage modifies the START triage system to take into account the physiologic and developmental differencesof pediatric patients. It is intended for use in children younger than 8 years or who appear to weigh less than 100 pounds.
  • Consider critical incident management before, during, or after an event. It is normal to sometimes feel overwhelmed. Recognize the need for assistance in yourself as well as for others on the scene.