Mass casualty incident

The general public more commonly recognizes events such as building collapses, train and bus collisions, plane crashes, earthquakes and other large-scale emergencies as mass casualty incidents.

[6] A hospital can receive trauma center status by meeting specific criteria established by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and passing a site review.

[7] Ideally, once an MCI has been declared, a well-coordinated flow of events will occur, using three separate phases: triage, treatment, and transportation.

Using START, the medical responder assigns each patient to one of four color-coded triage levels, based on their breathing, circulation, and mental status.

[8] When responding to a chemical, biological, or radiological incident, the first-arriving crew must establish safety zones prior to entering the scene.

These treatment areas must always be within walking distance, and will be staffed by appropriate numbers of properly certified medical personnel and support people.

The litter bearers do not have to be advanced medical personnel; their role is to simply place casualties onto carrying devices and transport them to the appropriate treatment area.

These are often placed in gymnasiums, schools, arenas, community centers, hotels, and or other locations that can support a field hospital setup.

Permanent buildings are preferred to tents as they provide shelter, power, and running water, but many governments maintain complete field hospital setups that can be deployed anywhere within their jurisdiction within 12–24 hours.

These centers are usually staffed by a combination of doctors, nurses, paramedics/emergency medical technicians, first responders, and social workers (for example, from the Red Cross), who work to get families reunited after a disaster.

The demobilization process also gives the local community and the corresponding agencies an idea for how long their city and specific areas will be consumed with emergency personnel and essentially blocked off.

As a result, the process goes on much longer than necessary, which exacerbates financial costs, and puts a burden on local emergency and law enforcement services to uphold their everyday duties while also maintaining control of the mass casualty incident.