Incident Management and Special Operations

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Comment by Katherine Fuchs on November 8, 2009 at 11:29pm

Joffry,

Welcome to the group.

Kathy

Comment by Joffry van Grondelle on November 7, 2009 at 3:01am

Great to share info with colleagues on this ems topic.
I am a Ambulance RN from the Netherlands.

Comment by Skip Kirkwood on March 31, 2009 at 8:00pm

Duke,

Your observations are very insightful.

One of the challenges that many EMSers face is that they don't get much practice in incident command roles. In some communities, they are excluded by legal forces, in others by historical forces, and in some because it's just easier to focus on the patients and let somebody else run the incident. First arriving EMS units rarely assume command, and EMS supervisors rarely excercise complex ICS roles. So what needs to be second nature is a struggle when a rare event requires that it be exercised.

Good ICS must become as much of an organizational priority as good clinical skills. Looking at the London major incident plan (where police command everything), there are important ICS roles for everyone from the first arriving EMS unit through the EMS supervisory structure. But to do that, you have to train.

I would highly recommend the Enhanced Incident Management/Unified Command course at the Texas Engineering Extension Service in College Station, TX. It is a post-400 level ICS course that gets right in to the practical aspects of command and general staff, as well as branches, divisions, and groups, for all disciplines (including public works, public health, etc.). It's also fully funded by the feds, including travel, lodging, and food, and is the best week of training that I've experienced in maybe 15 years (since I took CONTOMS). I recommend it for any EMS line supervisor, and I require it for all of the Wake County EMS district chiefs, division chiefs, and assistant chiefs.

If you start doing ICS on every call that is not "one ambulance and a house" you will be surprised how quickly those skills will build.

Comment by Duke Powell on March 21, 2009 at 7:10pm

I work in the Twin Cities, MN and it took two events to drive some hard lessons home when it comes to incident management and special ops.

The I-35 bridge collapse occured in the area my department covers. While many things turned out well, there were glaring short-comings in two key areas: Command and Control and Communications.

We learned a lot and started to implement changes shortly thereafter. One of the major things we discovered is that it is not enough to have state of the art radio infrastructure - which we have. It was apparent that our disaster procedures fell short due to lack of familiarity with the protocols. Consequently, all events, whether they be house fires, accidents with multiple patients, or anything that requires resources above and beyond the norm, is handled like a disaster would be handled.

This gives the medics the ability to practice the protocols. It has been a big help. Command, Control and Communications are at the forefront.

We were also involved in the Republican National Convention activities. In this instance, the Feds came in and took over the event. They fell in love with our radio system and we, in turn, were astonished by what that system could do when under the control of folks who know exactly what they were doing.

The RNC was exceedingly well handled and, in my opinion, things were kept under control due to a very strong command and control presense coupled with great communications. We ran circles around the protesters.

Comment by Katherine Fuchs on March 20, 2009 at 7:52pm

Hi Dolph and welcome to the group. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for. There are seasoned "operators" in this group who I'm sure would love to chat. What specifically are you looking for? Post it as a topic of discussion.

Kathy

Comment by Dolph Holmes on March 20, 2009 at 11:03am

This looks like a great place to see what others are doing in EMS for mass casulty preps. I have been on the fire side when dealing with large scale incidents but so many folks in EMS don't prepare well enough for
"the big one". It is very interesting to read the report on the respone at
the pentagon on Sept 11, 2001. So many things came together well because of preplanning.
I am interested in trading notes with other who teach ICS classes and
CERT classes.
Dolph

Comment by Katherine Fuchs on February 12, 2009 at 12:58am

Hello Shelly and welcome. We're looking forward to your posts and insights from Israel.

Kathy

Comment by Shelly on February 11, 2009 at 11:03am

Hi Wajata, sounds very interesting what you are doing. We had a few groups from Nigeria here (Israel) to show them behind the scenes of EMS and Disaster response and we are in the midst of setting up an EMS system there. feel free to contact me and I would love to hear more about what it is you are doing.

Comment by Katherine Fuchs on February 7, 2009 at 11:16pm

Hi Wajata and welcome to Incident Management and Special Operations. We are happy to share and look forward to your contribution too.

Kathy

Comment by Wajata on February 7, 2009 at 12:33pm

I have just joined JEMS but was very interested in this group, I am in Kenya where we are in the early stages of putting in place a National EMS plan and we are also invoved in ICS - training as an important part of the whole EMS picture. I would be very glad to share our experiences of introducing ICS in Kenya and to share scenarios and training ideas.

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