In light of the exceptional circumstances that arose from hosting the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and from recent terrorist events internationally, Greece attributes the highest priority to security issues. According to its statutory role, the Greek Atomic Energy Commission is responsible for emergency preparedness and response in case of nuclear and radiological events, and advises the Gov...

In this paper, the authors introduce a real time web based tool for resource allocation (RETRA) that can assist the incident commanders and resource managers in the complex task of emergency resource deployment for multiple simultaneous incidents that occur in close geographical proximity. RETRA real time inputs include the location of the emergency sites and the required resources with associa...

Quality or performance improvement is paramount to trauma programs. In an effort to improve the emergency care continuum for children and in response to the Government Performance Review Act, the Federal Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program developed EMSC performance measures. The measures provide benchmarking capabilities and a plan for state EMSC programs to reduce pediatric...

This final rule establishes national emergency preparedness requirements for Medicare- and Medicaid-participating providers and suppliers to plan adequately for both natural and man-made disasters, and coordinate with federal, state, tribal, regional, and local emergency preparedness systems. It will also assist providers and suppliers to adequately prepare to meet the needs of patients, reside...

Plan B is a progestin [4]-only emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) that can be taken within seventy-two hours of unprotected sex in order to prevent an unwanted pregnancy [5]. Plan B was created in response to the United States Food and Drug Administration?s (US FDA) 1997 request for new drug applications (NDAs) for a dedicated ECP product, and was approved for sales in the US in 1999. Duramed, ...

A natural disaster is defined as an event of nature, which overwhelms local resources and threatens the function and safety of the community. Generally, disasters are the ultimate test of a community’s emergency response capability. A thoughtful and well-organised emergency strategy will be able to quickly adjust and adapt to unforeseen situations and complications. (1) An emergency strategy th...

OBJECTIVES When a soccer stadium stampede occurred in Zimbabwe on 9 July 2000, the hospital disaster (medical emergency) plan failed. This report describes the use of the audit technique to change the hospital's disaster preparedness. METHOD A literature review was done to establish international standards of best practice in major medical incident response. The hospital disaster plan (major ...

In the week before Hurricane Katrina's landfall in August 2005, emergency management officials in Jefferson County (Birmingham), Alabama, began to make plans for the potential influx of evacuees from the Gulf Coast. No pharmacy component to the plan was in place at that time. The Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) discovered that local pharmacies and hospital emergency departments wer...

Especially since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, governments worldwide have invested considerable resources in the writing of terrorism emergency response plans. Particularly in the United States, the federal government has created new homeland security organisations and urged state and local governments to draw up plans. This emphasis on the written plan tends to draw attention awa...

BACKGROUND US high schools are increasingly adopting automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for use in campus settings. We analyzed the effectiveness of emergency response planning for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in a large cohort of US high schools that had onsite AED programs. METHODS AND RESULTS A cohort of US high schools with at least 1 onsite AED was identified from the National Regis...