Health
AMA works to improve handling of mass casualties
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 5, 2004
State, local and specialty medical societies should take a leadership role in assuring the health system's surge capacity in situations that create large numbers of wounded. The Dept. of Homeland Security and the Dept. of Health and Human Services should create multistate coordination capacity in order to improve the response in such situations. Also, the Medical Reserve Corps should be expanded, and rapid credentialing systems with liability protection should be created in order to facilitate a better response, according to several resolutions and reports adopted at the AMA House of Delegates at the Interim Meeting in Honolulu last month.
The House adopted these positions in response to complaints from physicians that they have sometimes been cut out of the disaster response planning process as well as the observation that disasters do not respect state lines.
"On Sept. 11, [2001], we watched the World Trade Center fall," said AMA Trustee Peter Carmel, MD, a Newark, N.J., pediatric neurosurgeon. "Had local, state, the AMA and specialty societies been involved in preparedness planning, many patients would have been treated on average an hour and a half sooner than they were."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/01/05/hlbf0105.htm.
