Major Incident Management - Essay Example

Running head: Major Incident Management Major Incident Management (school) Major Incident Management The duties of the first ambulance crew arriving on the scene of an incident, particularly in New South Wales, Australia is to check first the safety of the area where the incident occurred. This includes checking the area for possible electrical, oil or petrol hazards which may also put the life of the crew in danger. The next step would be to check the injured for responsiveness and for signs of life.

The ambulance crew then has to apply the severity assessment code in order to determine patient prioritization (New South Wales Government, 2005). The patients may be categorized based on consequences. Those who are categorized as serious have a deathly consequence in their circumstances; those categorized as major may suffer from a major permanent loss of function; next comes those who may suffer with a permanent reduction in bodily functions; those categorized as minor require increased level of care; and finally those classified as minimum are patients with no injury or increased level of care (New South Wales Government, 2005).

Based on corporate consequence, impact on staff, visitors, services, finances, and the environment shall also be assessed by the first responder. The likelihood of the incident happening again shall also be assessed by the first responder. He shall classify the likelihood from the rating ‘frequent’ (the highest possible rating) to ‘rare’ (the lowest possible rating) (New South Wales Government, 2005). The risk or the magnitude of the incident also needs to be assessed by the first responder.

The incident is rated at 1 if the risk is extreme; 2 if the risk is high; 3, if there is medium risk; and 4 if the risk is low (New South Wales Government, 2005). The initial triage of the first responder is to assess the patients with life threatening conditions. The first responder has to deliver immediate treatment to these patients first by delivering CPR after airway clearance. For those classified as urgent or are unable to walk with RRs at 10 bpm-29 bpm and CRT at 2 seconds or less, urgent treatment has to be delivered by the crew.

For those with minor injuries, but are walking, their treatment may be delayed; and for those who are dead, no treatment can be delivered. The crew then has to render appropriate emergency care and then transport the patients to the nearest hospital the soonest time possible, starting with those needing immediate care. In case of possible contagion, the emergency ambulance crew also has the duty of decontaminating the patients and themselves based on the protocols of the hospital and the medical services.

The ambulance crew has to decontaminate the injured; the massive decontamination would have to be placed in the hands of the Fire and Rescue Service. In cases of radiation incidents which are life-threatening, the patient has to be stabilized first and then be transferred to the hospital where he would be decontaminated. If the injury is not life-threatening, the decontamination has to be carried out first before patient is transported to the hospital. In the hospital, the first responder ambulance crew has to properly endorse the patient to the hospital authorities, detailing the incident, the patient injuries, and the care administered to the patient.

Medical Emergency Response Incident Teams (MERIT)Works CitedNew South Wales Government (2005) Ambulance Service of NSW. Retrieved 08 August 2010 from http://www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/New South Wales Government (2005) Severity Assessment Code (SAC). Retrieved 08 August 2010 from http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2005/pdf/sac_matrix.pdf