International Workshop

1. Hospital and Pre-Hospital Preparedness

• Hospital reception and surge capacity: Beds, operating rooms, intensive care facilities, equipment, medications, blood products, and essential supplies.
• Administrative preparedness: Patient registration, identification and documentation, management of unidentified patients, information management, and family liaison.
• Workforce and operational continuity: Staff reinforcement plans, shift management, and maintenance of essential services.
• Interagency coordination: Cooperation among ambulance services, police, fire and rescue services, hospitals, and relevant authorities.
• Command and communication: Defined roles and responsibilities, chains of command, communication channels, and backup arrangements.

2. Scene Organization Responder Roles and Casualty Distribution

• Scene command and coordination: Establishing a command structure and defining operational zones.
• Triage and evacuation: Assessing casualties, determining evacuation priorities, and coordinating transport.
• Casualty distribution: Distributing casualties among hospitals according to clinical needs, hospital reception capacity, available services, and transport times.
• Evacuation strategies: Discussing the “Scoop and Run” approach and its application within local response protocols.
• Responder roles: Defining the responsibilities of medical teams, police, fire and rescue services, incident command personnel, and local authorities.
• Situational awareness: Collecting and communicating updated information from the scene to hospitals and coordination bodies.

3. Casualty Reception and Hospital Incident Management

• Emergency activation: Activating the hospital emergency plan and incident management center.
• Reception and patient flow: Establishing reception, triage, and treatment areas and directing casualties through the hospital.
• Clinical coordination: Coordinating the emergency department, operating rooms, intensive care units, imaging services, laboratories, and blood bank.
• Capacity and resource management: Managing patient load, staffing, equipment, bed availability, and continuity of care.
• Information and liaison: Maintaining patient identification and documentation, communicating with families, and coordinating with external agencies.
• Hospital Overload: Dealing with overloaded hospitals and doing second transfers between hospitals.

4. National-Level Management and Coordination

• National responsibilities: Defining the roles of the Ministry of Health and other national emergency management or civil protection authorities.
• Coordination interfaces: Connecting government bodies, emergency services, hospitals, and local authorities.
• National situational awareness: Establishing a shared operational picture through structured reporting and information verification.
• Strategic resource allocation: Making decisions on reinforcement, interhospital patient transfers, resource distribution, and the resolution of operational bottlenecks.
• Public communication and accountability: Managing communication with the public, recording decisions, and following up on their implementation.

5. Group Tabletop Exercise

Participants will work in groups to manage an evolving mass-casualty incident scenario. Additional developments will be introduced during the exercise, such as rising casualty numbers, hospital overcrowding, road blockages, and communication failures.

Each group will be required to:

• Define command and coordination responsibilities at the scene, hospital, and national levels.
• Identify the information that must be collected, verified, and shared.
• Develop a casualty distribution plan and coordinate evacuation.
• Identify resource gaps and determine appropriate response actions.
• Present key decisions, assigned responsibilities, and next steps.

6. Summary and Lessons Learned

The workshop will conclude with a facilitated discussion in which participants identify:

• One key preparedness gap in their own system.
• One practical follow-up action to undertake after the workshop.
• The person or organization responsible for advancing that action.