A 36-Hour Unplugged Full-Scale Exercise: Closing the Gaps in Interagency Collaboration between the Disaster Medical Assistance Team and Urban Search and Rescue Team in Disaster Preparedness in Taiwan

Ning-Ping Foo; Edmund Cheung So; Nai-Chen Lu; Shih-Wei Hsieh; Shih-Tien Pan; Yu-Long Chen; Yu-Cheng Hung; Siu-Fung Wong; Chi-Feng Hsu; Chung-Yu Chen

doi:10.1155/2021/5571009

A 36-Hour Unplugged Full-Scale Exercise: Closing the Gaps in Interagency Collaboration between the Disaster Medical Assistance Team and Urban Search and Rescue Team in Disaster Preparedness in Taiwan

Emerg Med Int. 2021 Apr 6:2021:5571009. doi: 10.1155/2021/5571009. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Ning-Ping Foo^{1

2}, Edmund Cheung So³, Nai-Chen Lu⁴, Shih-Wei Hsieh⁴, Shih-Tien Pan⁵, Yu-Long Chen⁶, Yu-Cheng Hung⁷, Siu-Fung Wong⁸, Chi-Feng Hsu⁹, Chung-Yu Chen^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Emergency Medicine, An Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan, Taiwan.
² Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan.
³ Department of Anesthesia, An Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Nursing, An Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Emergency Medicine, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Emergency Medicine, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Emergency Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Touyuan, Taiwan.
⁸ International Association of Emergency Manager, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, China.
⁹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Ditmansion Medical Foundation, Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Department of Occupational Safety and Health, School of Safety and Health Sciences, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan.
¹¹ Occupation Environment and Food Safety Research Center, Chan Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan.

Abstract

Introduction: Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) and urban search and rescue team (USAR) need to cooperate seamlessly to save lives in disasters, but related research is limited.

Objectives: To estimate the disaster preparedness of the DMAT and the barriers affecting interagency cooperation between the DMAT and the USAR team.

Methods: This was an observational study of a full-scale exercise conducted in Taiwan from November 16 to 18, 2018. The exercise scenario simulated a magnitude 7 earthquake in Tainan City. DMATs from other counties were deployed and cooperated with local USAR teams to carry out disaster relief. Our study invited 7 experts to evaluate DMATs on disaster preparedness capabilities and the interagency collaboration between DMATs and USAR.

Results: A total of eight DMATs, consisting of 30 physicians, 65 nurses, 74 logisticians, 5 health bureau personnel, and 85 USAR teams, participated in this exercise. During the mission, 176 patients were treated. The capabilities of each team were generally consistent with the basic technical standards for type I emergency medical teams, but the compliance rates for basic local anesthesia, cold chain equipment for medication, rapid blood test tools, and sterilization devices were only 50%, 12.5%, 12.5%, and 9%, respectively. In addition, 53% of participants reported abnormal vital signs, indicating that it was a high-stress situation. Moreover, the main barriers to interagency collaboration were differing perspectives and poor mutual understanding.

Conclusion: A full-scale exercise carried out jointly with DMATs and USAR teams was valuable for disaster preparedness, particularly in terms of understanding the weaknesses of those teams and the barriers to interagency collaboration.