NATO Advanced Research Workshop: Hospitals under Fire - Planning and Operating a Hospital under Fire and Extreme Circumstances NATO Advanced Research Workshop: Hospitals under Fire - Planning and Operating a Hospital under Fire and Extreme Circumstances
Abstract
Whether caused by terrorism or natural disasters, mass casualties have become a contingency that must be faced by all hospitals, regardless of size. To address this issue, the NATO Partnership for Peace and the Mediterranean Dialogue programs organized three workshops in Haifa, Israel.
The first was held in 2005, the second in 2009, and the third in November 2014. The objective of the last workshop was to bring together experts in the field of trauma medicine and trauma health care services, both military and civilian, to discuss methods for providing timely, effective, and efficient health care in mass casualty situations.
Issues discussed included, but were not limited to: (1) hardening existing infrastructure or building new infrastructure (including communication and computer infrastructure) to resist damage from terrorism, or man-made/natural disasters, (2) use of disaster simulations and drills to prepare for mass casualties, (3) use of field hospitals to provide point-of-injury care, and (4) health care logistics for mass casualty events. Given that mass casualty situations are not everyday occurrences, the workshop also addressed the issues of cost of constant readiness, and cost of infrequent use.
Preparing for mass casualty situations represents a complex sociopolitical, organizational and logistical problem. It requires co-operation at multiple levels of government and among both civilian and military health care services.
A mass casualty event can occur at any time, which makes preparedness not only essential, but also an urgent precondition.