ASHP Contributes Expertise To Comprehensive Disaster Preparedness Plan

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 08 May 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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ASHP was a key participant on a task force that created detailed guidelines to prepare health professionals to provide optimal care for critically ill patients when large-scale disasters strike.

The Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During a Disaster plan, developed by the Task Force for Mass Critical Care, also explains how health systems can manage critical care resources in mass casualty events and expand capacity for life-saving interventions. The guidelines can be used at the local, state and federal levels.

Led by the American College of Chest Physicians, the multidisciplinary panel, which consists of 37 senior-level experts from the U.S. and Canada, urged clinicians, public health authorities and others to be prepared for catastrophes.

While the plan stresses that preparedness can alleviate the need for a health system to ration resources in emergency events, it provides strategies for rationing if the system exceeds its surge capacity (the maximum amount of medical care that can be provided).

ASHP member Brian Erstad, Pharm.D., represented the Society as a member of the task force, which was established by the Critical Care Collaborative. As part of the collaborative, ASHP partners with a broad range of healthcare organizations to develop a more patient-focused approach to caring for the critically ill.

The plan is available on ASHP's Emergency Preparedness Resource Center .

http://www.ashp.org