Coordinating Care in Chaos: Mass Causality Incident Tracking

With the inevitability of mass casualty incidents (MCI), whether it’s weather related, a multiple motor vehicle accident or a mass shooting, it is essential to be prepared to deliver the coordinated care necessary to bring calm to the chaos. When disaster strikes, patient and treatment tracking help emergency medical services (EMS) and hospitals with an effective response when time is of the essence.

To equip care providers throughout the state of Missouri with a uniform method for rapid MCI documentation and reporting, Peggy Huddleston with the Department of Health and Senior Services (MO DHSS) helped implement a Mass Casualty Patient Log worksheet in the state’s ImageTrend Elite™ electronic patient care report (ePCR) system. Located directly in the ePCR, the worksheet is activated after an MCI has been documented by emergency personnel and allows pertinent information for patient treatment and tracking to be captured. The ePCR is then synced with the state’s ImageTrend Patient Registry™ as a cloud-connected solution to deliver critical prehospital information to the hospital staff in advance.

For providers not using the state’s ePCR system, Huddleston helped create the Mass Incident Deployment form to submit third-party data to the state for tracking and reporting. Modeled after the Mass Casualty Patient Log worksheet, this form is then synced with the state’s ImageTrend ePCR and Patient Registry to transmit insights on information captured at the repatriation site or MCI location.

The implementation of the Mass Casualty Patient Log worksheet and the Mass Incident Deployment form allows MO EMS providers to quickly coordinate care and track the treatment of patients following an unfortunate event. To help other states and EMS organizations be more prepared in the event of an MCI, the MO Mass Casualty Patient Log worksheet is also shared in the ImageTrend Library.

“It is our hope that these events and the use of these forms never, if not rarely, need to be deployed,” said Michael Patock, ImageTrend’s Executive Vice President of Strategic Development. “However, it can’t be stressed enough how important is to have a plan in place to coordinate this kind of care when the time comes. Kudos to Peggy and her team for spearheading this initiative and making these forms available to other Elite users throughout the nation.”

Huddleston was the recipient of a 2022 Hooley Award in the New Frontier category. The Hooley Awards recognize innovators and thought leaders, honoring their involvement, creativity and passion, and were founded to acknowledge their contributions in innovation and excellence. The Hooley Awards finalists were celebrated and the winners announced during the 14^th annual ImageTrend Connect Conference.