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Victims that have been exposed to a chemical or biological agent should be decontaminated.
Personnel assigned to this task should be trained hazardous materials technicians because they
need to operate in chemical protective equipment. This may be as simple as a splash suit and
gloves or as complex as a fully encapsulated suit and positive-pressure breathing apparatus,
depending on what type of chemical or agent the victims were exposed to.
Transportation
The transport group is tasked with the responsibility for transporting victims from the incident
ground to field treatment centers, hospitals, or specialty referral centers (trauma, burn, replant,
etc.). The group officer usually maintains listings of available hospital beds and medical
evacuation and public transportation resources that may be needed to move victims. The
transport group also performs the critical function of maintaining the log of destinations to which
victims have been moved so that they may be tracked for public information and quality
assurance reasons.
Bibliography
• Comprehensive Emergency Medical Services Systems Act of 1973. Washington, DC:
United States Congress, Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee; 1973.
• Department of Homeland Security. National Incident Management System. March 2004.
Available at: http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NIMS-90-web.pdf. Accessed July
10, 2006.
• JumpSTART. Combined JumpSTART algorithm. Available at:
http://www.jumpstarttriage.com/. Accessed August 17, 2006.
• National Health Professionals Preparedness Consortium: Healthcare leadership and
administrative decision-making in response to WMD incidents. Nobel Exercise Scenario
Information, v.2.0. December 31, 2002.
• President's Disaster Management Egov Initiative. Available at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/c-2-2-disaster.html. Accessed August 17, 2006.
• San Mateo County Emergency Services. Hospital Emergency Incident Command System
(HEICS) Update Project. January 1998. Available at:
http://www.emsa.cahwnet.gov/dms2/heics3.htm. Accessed July 10, 2006.
• U. S. Department of Justice, Office for Domestic Preparedness. Hospital Emergency
Management—Concepts and Implications of WMD Terrorist Incidents. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice; April 2002.
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