Medical Planning for Operations Other Than War (OOTW): Determining Unique Patient Conditions Clinical Tasks and Supplies

摘要

Operations other than war (OOTW) and combat scenarios differ in doctrinal, cultural, political, personnel, and logistical aspects. Relying on the parameters of combat scenarios to plan medical requirements for OOTW missions might result in overstocking of some supplies and equipment while underestimating the requirements for others. The goal of this study was to identify those diseases and injuries that occur during OOTW but not during combat operations, and to link them to corresponding treatment tasks and supply requirements. The ultimate objective of this research effort was to add an OOTW component to the Estimating Supplies Program (ESP), thus enhancing its value as a planning tool. A literature search was conducted to find published disease and injury statistics representing a variety of OOTW scenarios, and this information was organized to form a database. Researchers compared the OOTW diagnoses with diseases and injuries that were already defined in the ESP model. The literature search produced 19 sources that included disease and injury information for OOTW. To organize these statistics, PCs used in ESP were identified either as trauma or nontrauma. The trauma PCs were divided into 18 categories, while the nontrauma PCs formed 20 categories. There were 15 OOTW diagnoses that did not match already-existing PCs, and all of them were nontraumatic. In addition, 22 new clinical tasks were introduced. In this report, the diagnoses were classified by type rather than by frequency to determine which diseases and injuries are unique to OOTW. Additional research is needed to quantify populations at risk and to calculate rates of occurrence for humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and peacekeeping.