Based on the experience of managing > 20 such events during the last decade, the authors' understanding of a mass-casualty incident is that it is an event in which there may be many victims, but only a few that actually suffer from life-threatening injuries. To make an impact on survival, one must identify those who are severely wounded as quickly as possible and offer those patients optimal ca...

The most widely used standard for mass-casualty triage, START, relies on a fixed-priority ordering among different classes of patients, and does not explicitly consider resource limitations or the changes in survival probabilities with respect to time. We construct a fluid model of patient triage in a mass-casualty incident that incorporates these factors and characterize its optimal policy. We...

Bombs aimed at civilian populations are the most common weapon used by terrorists throughout the world. Over the last decade, we have been involved in the management of more than 20 mass casualty incidents, most of which were caused by terrorist bombings. Commonly, in these events, there may be many victims and many deaths. However, only a few of the survivors will suffer from life-threatening ...

This paper describes an approach to training emergency responders for mass casualty incidents. The approach is derived from a methodology and supporting software system called Summit. The Summit approach uses an integration of scenarios, hierarchical task analysis, interaction modeling, and expected utility theory to represent how actors engage in complex tasks; here we model mass casualty inci...

Following a hazardous chemical accident, early critical care life support is crucial to minimizing potential morbidity and mortality (1). Providing effective care to victims, however, depends on the nature of the incident, the number of victims affected, the availability of medical care, the coordination of rescue efforts, the available modes of evacuation, and the availability of post-evacuati...

Introduction: During a mass casualty incident (MCI), activating resources for response and equitable patient distribution is paramount. The Regional Hospital Coordination Center (RHCC) of large US city lacked an objective tool readily available to manage area hospitals during MCI. In hospital-rich community, spreading the throughout region decreases impact one hospital. A was needed equitably d...