NCJ Number
192410
Date Published
May 2001
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This paper described the development, implementation, and operations of the Neighborhood Emergency Help Center developed by the Biological Weapons Improved Response Program as a mass casualty care concept offering a flexible approach to saving lives and a way to mitigate the effects of a major biological incident.
Abstract
With the growing concern over the likelihood of a terrorist attack, the Biological Weapons Improved Response Program (BWIRP) developed a mass casualty care concept called the Neighborhood Emergency Help Center (NEHC) to facilitate response planning. The NEHC is a component of the Modular Emergency Medical System (MEMS) strategy that helps communities compensate by providing a framework that outside disaster medical resources can quickly and effectively integrate with, augmenting local health and medical efforts. This paper presented information contained in the third and final draft of the NEHC Concept of Operations consisting of its purpose, policies, scope of care, staffing, operational components, patient and information flow, and responsibility integration and interoperability. The NEHC is a flexible and tailorable mass casualty care strategy capable of filling existing gaps in the Nation's civilian medical response to a biological terrorist attack. The NEHC expands the capabilities of existing outpatient clinics to provide rapid triage and distribution of medical prophylactic medications and self-help information. Working in conjunction with hospitals, NEHC offers emergency managers an improved mechanism for saving lives and mitigating the effects of a large-scale biological terrorism attack. Resources and references