Course Description

Mass Casualty Incident (often shortened to MCI and sometimes called a multiple-casualty incident or multiple-casualty situation) is any incident in which emergency medical services resources, such as personnel and equipment, are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. An incident where a two-person crew is responding to a motor vehicle collision with three severely injured people could be considered a mass casualty incident. The general public more commonly recognizes events such as building collapses, train and bus collisions, plane crashes, earthquakes and other large-scale emergencies as mass casualty incidents

This course provides an overview of mass casualty management and reviews the tasks involved in MCI triage. The course is based on use of the START (Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment) algorithm for adults and the JumpStart algorithm for children. These algorithms provide a simple and consistent process to sort casualties into priorities for treatment by using guidelines based on changes in vital signs.
In a mass casualty incident (MCI) the resources available for patient care, such as personnel and equipment, may be overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. In this type of scenario, medical and non-medical personnel assigned to perform triage need to be able to prioritize care to do the greatest good for the greatest number of patients.

Course Goal

To enhance the participant’s knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to ensure adequate and coordinated efforts to minimize loss of life and disabling injuries.

Course Objectives

By the end of this training course, participants will learn to:

• Understand the threats and challenges.
• Explain the goals of mass casualty management and the functional roles typically involved in a mass casualty response.
• Define basic medical terms as they apply to the START and Jump START mass casualty triage algorithms.
• Describe the importance of using an organized search pattern to identify the next victim to evaluate during a mass casualty response.
• Discuss the application of the START and JumpStart algorithms to prioritize both adult and paediatric patients, using a job aid depicting the algorithms.
• Assign a priority to all patients in the assigned search sector(s) according to the START or JumpStart triage algorithms in practice scenarios.
• Identify communication methods specified in MCI Plan. 
• Identify roles and responsibilities of MCI responders as specified in MCI Plan.
• Identify priorities related to Triage, Treatment and Transport Each slide specifies the appropriate sections of the MCI Plan for you to review during the training.

Who Can Benefit

This course is intended primarily for EMS, hospital, community health centre , or public health personnel who may be assigned to conduct triage in a mass casualty response.