Today's EMS community is a full partner on the nation's homeland-security first-responder team, but gets short shrift in funding, in representation at the White House and on Capitol Hill, and in media attention. One way to even out the playing field might be to establish a national office representing city, state, and federal EMS departments and agencies.
A complex amalgam of rules, regulations, data-collection sources and resources, and numerous other complicating factors will determine the success or failure of plans - already implemented, or still in the planning stage - to counter terrorist attacks.
Frequent and effective training is one of the keys to carrying out an adequate domestic-preparedness plan of any type. Such training costs money, though, and funds are scarce. One solution for the cost problem is to complement full-scale exercises with ta
In the new post-9/11 world the emergency community can no longer afford the luxury of compartmentalization. Planning, cooperation, and training together all will be needed - along with additional funds.
From the Middle Ages to the present, the most useful, as well as cost-effective, tool in the emergency-management supply kit was, and is, common sense. Which means, in certain respects, considering all everyday tasks to be emergencies, and approaching all
In times of major disasters, natural or manmade, few if any hospitals or other agencies have the personnel and other resources needed to handle all the casualties. But a good start can be made by planning ahead, training, working with other hospitals, and
The killing tools available today are extremely lethal, and, not limited to the military forces of nation states but also available to an increasingly large number of terrorist groups.
