Perceptions of Military Medical Disaster Response

Researcher: Dawn Higgins

Disaster Response Preparedness, to be effective, needs to become as close to second nature as possible.  Without regular and repetitive practice, contingency plans will be rendered ineffective.  “Doing what we do every day” is not disaster response; each situation is different, but the objectives are the same.  The military population receives specific training and bears the experiences of war‐time medical response and mass casualty incidents; particularly in settings where response capabilities are self‐reliant, thus largely fixed and known.  However, the coordination stateside with large public and private civilian organizations is not often fully incorporated in this training; though in reality, these organizations would fulfill significant roles in any military stateside disaster response.  This study attempts to identify barriers in attitudes and buy‐in with regards to motivation and participation in medical disaster preparedness at a military Level 1 trauma center emergency department.  Results of this study will be used in future training programs to enhance participation and improve training efficacy of military medical personnel for better disaster response.

EMS trauma triage: does the red‐blue criteria enable over‐triage

Researchers: Dawn Higgins

This study will attempt to determine if the San Antonio, Texas‐area prehospital trauma triage criteria are understood and used appropriately by the local Emergency Medical System (EMS) and emergency department personnel. There is some perception by emergency department staff that a large portion of trauma patients are incorrectly assessed in the field by prehospital personnel. The sample population will consist of all adult military and civilians accepted to Wilford Hall Medical Center based on Priority 1 Trauma criteria. One goal of this study is to identify if this is due to misleading trauma triage criteria and/or education of responding personnel.  Other goals of this study include evaluating how well the current trauma criteria appropriately identified patients requiring a Level 1 trauma facility and how well the trauma resuscitation anticipated the needs of the patient.  Pre‐hospital and arrival survey responses will be compared to the calculated patient Injury Severity Score and final disposition for predictive value.