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General Principles in Disasters and Mass Casualty Incidents
Questions and Answers
1
What is a disaster?
A disaster is defined by the World Health Organization as a sudden ecologic phenomenon of sufficient magnitude to require external assistance. Essentially, it is any event that overwhelms the capabilities of a particular service. For example, a multicar accident on a highway can easily overwhelm the nearest trauma center if there are multiple serious injuries or a power outage in a hospital that is already operating at 110% capacity for patients. At any time during any day where the resources on hand cannot handle the task that needs to be done, a disaster can happen.
2
What are the different types of disasters?
Natural disasters are probably the event that is thought of the most when the word disaster is mentioned. These are events like earthquakes, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and tornados. Damage to infrastructure can occur at the same time that a large volume of patients may be presenting to the local hospital. Terrorist events, like the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013, create a large number of seriously wounded patients that overwhelm the local EMS and hospital capabilities. Internal disasters happen when a hospital or facility has an event that only affects that facility, like a power outage or fire. In all of these cases, the potential for loss of life is high and exacerbated by the lack of normally available and prepared personnel, equipment, and resources. These types of disasters can lead to a mass casualty incident (MCI).
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