Citation

Carenzo L, Ingrassia PL, Foti F, Albergoni E, Colombo D, Sechi GM, Zoli A, Sironi S. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2022.84

PMID

35361292

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We report the development, implementation and results of a sustainable region-wide mass-casualty management pre-hospital training program implemented by the Regione Lombardia emergency medical services (EMS) agency AREU in Italy.

METHODS: The educational program learning objectives are: 1) Command and control, communications and resource management. 2) Mass casualty triage and the START triage protocol. 3) On-scene management 4) Regione Lombardia and AREU Mass Casualty standard operating procedures 5) Inter-agency communications and relations. For each course edition data on participants summative assessment, participants feedback and costs were collected.

RESULTS: Between June 26th,2013 and December 31st,2020 a total of 84 editions of the provider training event were delivered, training an overall 1329 prehospital providers. 1239 (93%) passed the summative assessment and were qualified as being operationally "ready". Regarding participants' feedback, the overall program was rated 4.4±0.7out of 5. The overall cost of running the provider program during the study period was € 321,510 (circa US$ 382,000). The average cost per edition was € 3,828 and € 242 per participant.

CONCLUSIONS: We have described a simple yet interactive simulation and blended-learning approach, which has yielded good pass rates, good participant satisfaction and contained costs to systematically train emergency medical service personnel.

Language: en

Keywords

training; education; disaster medicine; emergency medical services; mass casualty incident; simulation