Alternative Health Care Facility: Concept of Operations for the Off- site Triage, Treatment, and Transportation Center (OST3C). Mass Casualty Care Strategy for a Chemical Terrorism Incident. Revision 1

摘要

The Off-Site Triage, Treatment, and Transportation Center (OST3C or the Center) will be capable of handling approximately 80-125 non-critical patients per hour (or 400 to 750 patients during a six-hour period). In addition to triage and treatment, patients will also undergo a detailed decontamination meant to remove chemical contaminants. The patients care endpoint is either transport to a higher level of care facility or discharge to home with self-care instructions. The goal of the OST3C is to provide care for a specific patient population and thereby improve overall patient outcome for the community. By re-directing those who are triaged Minimal at the scene, the psychophysiologic casualties who have no physical injury (anticipated ratio of psychophysiologic casualty to actual casualties is expected to be at least 5:1), the non-critical patients that show up at over-crowded hospitals, and the citizens who self-refer directly to the Center, hospitals can focus on patients who require in-hospital services and the OST3C can focus on patients who need basic symptomatic and supportive care. The OST3C is an interim patient clearinghouse that will be disassembled once the flow of new patients has diminished to the point that they can be handled by the existing health care system.