538 Lessons Learned Helping Non-Burn Facilities Prepare for Burn Mass Casualty Disasters

An Oregon burn center updated the state’s burn mass casualty plan, focusing on caring for patients beyond the first 96 hours. The authors then conducted several tabletop exercises to familiarize EMS and healthcare facilities in both urban and rural settings with the plan. The exercises revealed similar issues across rural and urban regions, including “difficulty establishing control at the scene and the initial responding hospital, insufficient decontamination supplies, traffic and delays in transporting patients… and lack of staffing.”