EMS World

MAR 2013

EMS World Magazine is the most authoritative source in the world for clinical and educational material designed to improve the delivery of prehospital emergency medical care.

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DISASTER RESPONSE Lessons Learned As smoothly as operations ran before, during and after the storm, considering the circumstances, Cortacans says, there were still unexpected challenges to overcome, and lessons learned for the EMS providers involved. "We expected widespread utilities disruptions, but to actually undergo and see what 2.6 million households without power looks like was astonishing," Cortacans explains. "One of our major coordination centers lost power, went to the back-up systems and those were unable to be used because they required power as well, apparently. So Did you know that 74% of EMS worker deaths are transportation-related?* Don't let your staff become part of the statistic. Protect them with safety seating from EVS, Ltd. Since 1993, we've produced more safety seating products than anyone in the EMS industry, through investing in research and development and dynamic testing. EVS 1769 Seat with Mobility 1 Tracking System • Seamless seat with 3-point belting system • Tracking system allows access to equipment and patient while belted • Available in 36" or 48" long track • Seat attachment to base may be offset to gain additional space *According to the National Association of EMS Physicians. S EAT OPT IO N S k 8" 36" or 4 g lon trac Tilt-forward to transport a second patient or flip-up when not in use What are you doing to keep your medical staff safe? Specify EVS seating in your next vehicle. visit EMs Expo Booth 853 Emergency Vehicle Seating (800)364-3218 · International (574)233-5707 E-mail: evssales@evsltd.com · www.evsltd.com Our only business is seating safety for the EMS industry! For More Information Circle 34 on Reader Service Card 38 MARCH 2013 | EMSWORLD.com NJ EMS Task Force computer-aided dispatch system utilized for statewide MCI events during Sandy. Photo by Bucky Buchanan they had to go to some tertiary systems, some satellite technology, to get back up and running." The loss of utilities also meant the loss of communication, or at least some modes of communication taken for granted these days. "There was no power, so towers and transmitters went down; people working out of EOCs couldn't communicate," explains Cortacans. "And I'm not just talking about radios, but Internet. There was very limited Internet service and it took a while for that to get back in place. Some of our government primary e-mail servers and back-ups are located in New Jersey. If almost all of New Jersey has no power, you have no e-mail. So, many state, county and local government officials that didn't have a back-up server in a non-affected area had e-mail outages for several days. One of the lessons learned is to have a professional back-up e-mail on Yahoo or Gmail, because if one of their servers goes down they have them all over and you can still get e-mail without interruption." Cortacans notes though that mobile devices largely withstood the power and Internet outages. The 3G and 4G networks didn't go down. Providers were at least able to rely on their mobile devices for alternate e-mail, text messaging and Internet. He also found tablet devices extremely useful in the field and for operations management, particularly an app called Tactical EMS Table, which assists in geotagging operations. In particular though, says Cortacans,

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