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17 - Management of Mass Gatherings

from PART II - OPERATIONAL ISSUES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

By
Michael S. Molloy ,
Zane Sherif ,
Stan Natin  and
John McDonnell
Edited by
Kristi L. Koenig  and
Carl H. Schultz
Kristi L. Koenig
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Carl H. Schultz
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
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Summary

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.

Bill Shankly, Liverpool Football Club Manager, In Sunday Times (UK) 1981

OVERVIEW

Introduction

Globally, the management of mass gatherings encompasses a wide range of activities because of varying types of events and baseline medical and health infrastructures. Mass gathering medical care can be challenging because it is provided in unfamiliar environments without access to standard hospital resources.

The material in this chapter will assist Event Medical Officers/Command Physicians/Medical Directors, team physicians, and other medical and health personnel to plan for and provide medical services at mass gatherings. In many countries routine prehospital care is the domain of emergency medical technicians and paramedics. In others there is a mixed model with physician involvement and occasionally physician direction. Although nomenclature is inconsistent across countries, this chapter will use the term “medical director” to denote the physician in charge of medical management at a mass gathering. Mass gathering medicine involves a spectrum ranging from additional prehospital resources being directed to a specific area for a defined time period to more sophisticated models in which resources remain in place over a prolonged time. This can include temporary field hospitals and the conversion of fixed facilities into sites where many medical, nursing, and paramedical staff provide care for one hundred thousand or more persons for periods lasting from 6 hours to 4 weeks.

Keywords

event planningmass gatheringsmedical oversightmedical staff selectiontriage systemmedical reconnaissancemedical resources
Type
Chapter
Information
Koenig and Schultz's Disaster Medicine
Comprehensive Principles and Practices
 , pp. 228 - 252
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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