When a catastrophic emergency occurs, hospital morgues will
quickly reach capacity and hospitals will need to implement
internal mass fatality plans.
Hospitals should plan for the appropriate bagging and storage of
the dead, and consider the evidentiary needs (bodies stored with
some space/distance between bodies, appropriate
identification/labeling of the body). If the body is
contaminated, special bagging, handling and labeling procedures
must be ensured. The hospital plan for management of mass
fatalities must also include a procedure for providing
information about viewing the dead by family members. Careful
identification and tracking of the dead must be documented by the
hospital and provided to authorities when requested.
On May 24, 2022, 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot,
and 17 others were wounded, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde,
Texas. In a community of just over 16,000 people, responders
faced one known factor — they likely knew victims involved in the
shooting. In spite of this, emergency responders had to keep
their focus on their jobs: saving lives. The dialogue will take a
profound dive into the on-scene perspective, regional mutual aid
response, resources deployed, and the role of the Incident
Commander at the Uvalde Memorial Hospital on that tragic day.
Presenter:
Eric Epley, Executive Director & CEO,
Uvalde Memorial Hospital
Jordan Ghawi, Director of Strategic
Initiatives, and TX-EMTF Task Force Leader, Southwest Texas
Regional Advisory Council (STRAC);
Julia Rodriguez, Emergency Director,
Uvalde Memorial Hospital
Experts from a community hospital and a stand-alone acute care
facility share stories and describe how the continuity of
decedent management is challenged when existing resources are
beyond capacity. Quick planning and coordination with the county
EMD, county coroner’s office, and local overflow mortuaries, and
transportation and storage capacity issues were critical to
staying ahead of reaching critical capacity. At the same time,
facilities had to manage staff suffering from illness and PTSD
due to massive increase of morgue duties. Speakers will
demonstrate how employing solutions assures the community that
the hospital is still a safe place to receive care. Lessons
learned from the presentation will assist health care emergency
management personnel in planning for future decedent surges
within a hospital morgue.
Fatality Management Lessons-Learned and Recommendations
Document
Lessons-learned documents that describes initial patient surges
and how best to prepare for future surges. The document includes
challenges, innovations, and a timeline of events, as well as
short- and long-term recommendations.
Coordination of the facility mass fatality plan with
county/region mass fatality planning must occur to provide better
community response. Education, training and exercises must be
conducted to ensure that staff have a working knowledge of the
plan and to ensure that the plan is workable. The hospital mass
fatality plan should be consistent with state and local
regulations, National Incident Management System and The Joint
Commission requirements.
This Mass Fatality Management Plan Template is meant to serve as
a framework for planners to build or refine a mass fatality plan
for their healthcare facility. This simple tool may be used
in conjunction with the Mass Fatality Management Guide for
Healthcare Entities, which is a robust resource that contains
detailed information regarding the type of information that
should be included in a healthcare entity mass fatality
management plan.
The Mass Fatality Management Guide for Healthcare Entities
includes guidance for hospitals, medical clinics, and SNFs
located in Los Angeles County to effectively manage mass fatality
operations within their scope as a healthcare partner. This guide
includes directions for mass fatality plan development and
successful activation, operation, and demobilization strategies
for partners within Los Angeles County. As such, the guide seeks
to provide a framework for mass fatality management during
large-scale disasters, smaller, more localized incidents as well
as long-term events.
The Coroners’ Mutual Aid & Mass Fatality Management Planning
Program is an integral component of the California Law
Enforcement Mutual Aid System.
In the event of incidents that result in mass fatalities, the
Coroners’ Mutual Aid System and plan serve as an essential
resource to the impacted local Sheriff-Coroner, Coroner, or
Medical Examiner should mutual aid be requested.
To assure an effective and efficient response, the Law
Enforcement Branch State Coroners’ Mutual Aid Coordinator
coordinates all inter-regional mutual aid and state agency
activity relating to mutual aid under the Coroner Mutual Aid
Plan. The State Coroners’ Mutual Aid Coordinator is the state
point-of-contact for any out-of-state official request for
coroners mutual aid.
Military, federal and state agencies have worked with Mortuary
Response Solutions (MRS) to employ a remains storage
solution for mass fatality events. The system provides
portable cold storage capability to assist response during
times of overwhelmed resources. MRS has designed, engineered and
tested the Mortuary Enhanced Remains Cooling System which is
the first direct contact cooling system using liquid cooling
technology to store human remains. The system can be
introduced to agencies through the new IRIS remains recovery
platform which is uniquely tailored to fit the needs of each
agency and is the only human remains recovery system that is
completely portable, scalable and interoperable. The system is
adaptable to any response requirement.
%20robert%20eplett%20oes6c10.jpg "Photo provided courtesy of Robert A. Eplett, OES California")
