| or challenge in the operation of your lodging establishment. Therefore, when a source other than
in the lodging industry has some critical lessons of significant value, it is something to be shared.
The U. S. Fire Administration/Technical Report Series report on I-35W Bridge Collapse and
Response, Minneapolis, Minnesota USFA-TR-166/August 2007 is such a report. While it is
47 pages of material and available through download, only, Chapter VII. Lessons Learned and
Best Practices is easily retrieved by downloading pages 43 through 47. Applying those lessons
to the lodging industry, consider:
1. Have a unified command post and coordinate this with emergency response organizations
in the community.
2. Insist the responders follow commands that will remove them from danger and that they
be cognizant of warning and evacuation signals and the importance of adhering to such
orders when communicated.
3. Have a plan to provide redundancy when EMS, ambulance or other emergency
equipment and personnel are required beyond normal community response protocol.
(Are there neighboring communities or organizations that might assist? If not, have a
plan for "going it alone" with whatever responders and equipment might be available).
4. Establish a control plan where it might be necessary to distribute injured persons to a
variety of medical facilities. Centrally manage one transportation group so that the status
of receiving hospitals, transport resources, and patients may be maintained.
5. Work with the medical community to be sure triage ribbons and tags are standardized to
permit consistent and more accurate identification and disposition of patient by any given
facility in a multi-person injury scenario.
6. Ensure that "well-intentioned rescuers" (responders) are properly equipped to assist
without compromising their own safety.
7. In establishing the plan for community response, be sure a senior EMS official is part of
the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
8. Consider the development of a redundant system to provide additional resources and
backup when the local EOC is overwhelmed by the magnitude of an emergency situation.
9. Establish a protocol for 9-1-1 implementation when the center is overwhelmed by calls
and call lists are not updated.
10. Organize communications so EMS personnel do not bypass the local medical resource
control center through use of cell phones to contact hospitals directly. The control
center's mission was abrogated as it did not have accurate information as to hospital
destinations and patient information.
11. Pre-determine how Family Assistance Centers should be integrated into a multi-person
injury scenario, How is the FAC to be managed, staffed and how may volunteers be best
utilized. Where should the FAC be located?
For the full report to be reviewed and/or downloaded go to:
www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr_166.pdf
(Note: During preparation of this article, the material was not available in other than
"download" format.) |
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