Verified Document

Public Health And Safety Effectiveness Of Emergency Research Paper

Public Health and Safety Effectiveness of Emergency Management and the Readiness of Trauma Centers

Since massive terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the anthrax scares in Washington, D.C. shortly thereafter, the effectiveness of emergency management responders and the readiness of emergency trauma centers have become national security issues. Unfortunately, the system is overburdened and may not be up to the challenge, possibly compromising the original mission for emergency rooms to provide adequate trauma care to local communities.

The nation's emergency room system is inadequate to deal with a WMD or other massive attack in terms of both funding and equipment.

In this research proposal, we will examine the need for examining why this is and what the federal government can do to remedy the need. Additionally, we need to find out to what extent federal efforts are succeeding and how and/or deficits with the federal efforts.

Analysis/Literature Review-Crisis for Emergency Management in the Emergency Room

In an article in the journal BMC Emergency Medicine problems in the emergency management response system and emergency trauma centers are revealed. The Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002 laid the groundwork for designating a critical emergency protection program. This ultimately led to the identification of emergency services as a targeted critical infrastructure resource. This has led to the crisis in hospital-based emergency care delivered through the doors of emergency trauma centers. The exigencies of the terrorist threat have brought about federal and state mandates. Unfortunately, due to insufficient federal funding, these mandates have contributed to a long-standing erosion of emergency medical care. All of this...

This constant acute overcrowding causes great risk to the nation. Federal funding largess has not prioritized the improvements sufficiently for the proper maintenance of the emergency care infrastructure network. At the present time, the nation is for this reason, it is critical to re prioritize federal funding strategies before tragedy strikes again (Cherry & Trainer, 2008, 1-6).
The big issue then is how to provide the American public with a comfort level as to the viability of the nation's trauma center. In an article in the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine a nationally representative sample of EMS providers in the United States was surveyed to ascertain as to whether or not they had received training in handling WMD crises and/or public health emergencies as a part of their initial training and as continuing medical education subjects. Providers were also surveyed as to whether or not primary EMS agencies had the required specialty equipment to respond to specific emergency events. Over half of the EMS providers had received some training in WMD response procedures. Just 18.1% of the providers surveyed said that their agencies possessed the required equipment to adequately respond to a WMD emergency. EMS providers that only received WMD training reported a higher comfort level than those with equipment but who had received no training (ibid., 298-300).

There may not be a completely adequate level of training and education as well as the lack of a complete supply of equipment to respond to WMD. Lessor training is obviously associated with decreased comfort among EM providers in responding to nuclear, biological…

Sources used in this document:
References

Becker, S.M., & Middleton, S.A. (2008). Research improving hospital preparedness for radiological terrorism: Perspectives from emergency department physicians and nurses. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2(3), 174-184.

Cherry, R.A., & Trainer, M. (2008). The current crisis in emergency care and the impact on disaster preparedness. BMC Emergency Medicine, 8(7), 1-7.

Reilly, M.J., Markenson, D., & DiMaggio, C. (2007). Comfort level of emergency medical service providers in responding to weapons of mass destruction events: Impact of training and equipment. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 22(4), 297-303.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Public Health and Health
Words: 3218 Length: 11 Document Type: Research Paper

Public Health Preparedness The concept of 'public health preparedness' (PHP) has been garnering recognition worldwide, given the global-scale threats which are constantly encountered by professional healthcare organizations, including bioterrorism, Ebola, the West Nile Virus, and influenza. Preparedness approaches have brought about improvements in the overall healthcare system, by enabling swifter responses to diverse kinds of hazards across the globe. A majority of PHP measures adopted in America are government-judged; this gives

Public Health Plan for Natural
Words: 2850 Length: 10 Document Type: Case Study

Public Health Incident Command Structure Action Plan Command staff and General staff Positions Three Major Problems Resources Needed Public Health Confusion and chaos are something that is something commonly experienced by the hospital whenever there is medical disaster going on in the city such as the case in this scenario. Nevertheless, these negative effects can be diminished if management steps up and responds quickly with a focused direction of activities and structure. The Hospital Emergency Incident

Government Sponsored Health Center and Emergencies
Words: 3797 Length: 10 Document Type: Introduction Chapter

Governmental healthcare centers concentrate on providing primary care to individuals and to control and manage the spread of infectious diseases and to manage natural disasters (Christian et al., 2008). However, in the public domain, health care differs from one country to another. This can be specifically applied in developed nations, where social, economic and political factors are most likely to influence public health policies and centers and their accessibility and

Statement of Purpose for Phd in Public Health
Words: 1270 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

working with a diverse population of Native Americans, Hispanics, and other individuals in the prison systems and public clinics of this country, I have come to two, crucial conclusions. Firstly, that the currently cost-strapped environment of the national health care system cries out for innovative financial and sociological solutions. Secondly, I believe I require further education in the field of public health to accomplish my goals in seeking to

Health Information Exchange in the US
Words: 2723 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

Health Information Exchange BOON OR BANE? Health Information Exchange in the U.S. The Guidelines Benefits Privacy and Security Challenges and Strategies Why Clinicians Use or Don't Use HIE Doctors' Opinion on HIE Consumer Preferences around HIE Health Information Exchange or HIE is a system, which allows the immediate electronic access of a person's health information records by a health provider (Fricton and Davies, 2008). The overall objective is to improve the safety and quality of health, especially for emergency care.

Health Care in the U.S. and Spain
Words: 7032 Length: 20 Document Type: Term Paper

Health Care in the U.S. And Spain What Can the U.S. Learn About Health Care from Spain? In 2009, Spain's single-payer health care system was ranked the seventh best in the world by the World Health Organization (Socolovsky, 2009). By comparison, the U.S. health care system ranted at 37 (Satiroglou, 2009). The Spanish system offers coverage as a right of citizenship that is constitutionally guaranteed. Spanish residents pay no expenses out-of-pocket, with

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now