Chest
Volume 133, Issue 5, Supplement, May 2008, Pages 8S-17S
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Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During a Disaster
Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During a Disaster: Current Capabilities and Limitations: From a Task Force for Mass Critical Care Summit Meeting, January 26–27, 2007, Chicago, IL

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.07-2707Get rights and content

In the twentieth century, rarely have mass casualty events yielded hundreds or thousands of critically ill patients requiring definitive critical care. However, future catastrophic natural disasters, epidemics or pandemics, nuclear device detonations, or large chemical exposures may change usual disaster epidemiology and require a large critical care response. This article reviews the existing state of emergency preparedness for mass critical illness and presents an analysis of limitations to support the suggestions of the Task Force on Mass Casualty Critical Care, which are presented in subsequent articles. Baseline shortages of specialized resources such as critical care staff, medical supplies, and treatment spaces are likely to limit the number of critically ill victims who can receive life-sustaining interventions. The deficiency in critical care surge capacity is exacerbated by lack of a sufficient framework to integrate critical care within the overall institutional response and coordination of critical care across local institutions and broader geographic areas.

Key Words

disaster medicine
influenza pandemic
mass casualty medical care
surge capacity

Abbreviations

DMAT
Disaster Medical Assistance Team
ED
emergency department
NDMS
National Disaster Medical System

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† A list of Task Force members is given in the Appendix.

The views expressed do not represent official positions of the Department of Veterans Affairs; the findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).

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