'Lessons learned': A comparative case study analysis of an emergency department response to two burns disasters

Joseph Galbraith
 

Lesson 12 Reading Summary

 

Reference: Little, M., Cooper, J., Gope, M., Hahn, K., Kibar, C., McCoubrie, D., & ... Leclercq, M. (2012). 'Lessons learned': A comparative case study analysis of an emergency department response to two burns disasters. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 24(4), 420-429. doi:10.1111/j.1742-6723.2012.01578.x

 

Theme: The Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) in Australia was faced with two mass casualties' incidents within seven years of each other.  This case study reviews how lessons learned from the first incident affected the second one.

 Summary:

• A suicide bomb detonated in Bali in 2002, sending 28 people to the RPH.  In 2009 the RPH received 23 patients with significant burns as a result of an explosion on board a foreign vessel in the remote Ashmore Reef Islands.

•A Disaster response plan was implemented along with regular training.  Exercises at the department and hospital level were conducted regularly to maintain readiness.

•During the bombing incident much time was spent communicating through individual phone calls.  A Short Message System (SMS) was implemented to send out messages with common language that was understood by all.  This freed workers and allowed them to spend more time on treatment.

• The Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) was created for the purpose of responding to a mass casualty incident.  They help treat burn/disaster victims on short notice.  They are deployed by the state.

• Identification markings were created to easily recognize treatment team members.  The large amount of people that occupied the ED at the time of the bombing caused un-needed confusion.

• Security and media relations procedures were created to help keep patients and families safe and secure.

• This case study proved highly beneficial to the profession of patient care and emergency management because it provided a rare view of how improvements were implemented after an emergency.  Then a similar incident occurred with those changes in place and the results were monitored and recorded with quantitative information that proved success.

Application to the lesson topic:

A definite improvement on how the hospital dealt with the media was noted in this case study.  The patients were able to be better protected as a result.

 

Application to emergency services:

Case studies like this are very rare because disasters are so unpredictable and sporadic.  It is very important that we as emergency managers are able to review these studies and learn from them.  It is also important that as we experience disasters that we contribute to the education of others by providing data back to the profession via forums, journals, conferences, etc.