Tabletop Exercises...EMS

"Tabletop exercises improve the critical incident outcome!"

The unique roles and responsibilities of Emergency Medical Services often are not understood as thoroughly as others in the first response community.

Unlike most police, sheriff, and fire departments, EMS comes in many different colors and shapes and arises from different organizations and jurisdictions. EMS is provided by fire departments, volunteer groups, private companies (local and national), hospitals, public health agencies, military, police, charitable organizations, and so on. Each of these EMS groups has its own agenda, procedures, staffing, and resources. Each has distinct training and communication methods.

While the single-minded focus of EMS functions well in the everyday world of attending to single patients who need treatment and transportation, the demands of "interoperability" and communication must be satisfied in the incident of major proportion. In a major critical incident, the dynamics of resource allocation, multi-agency coordination, command and communications have to be channeled though a command structure.

The events and climate of emergency response since September 11, 2001 have demonstrated a need to "institutionalize" the way all responders and receivers must interact. The Incident Command System (ICS) is an on-scene management program that has been mandated by the Department of Homeland Defense. EMS professionals need to understand the big picture as well as their rules and responsibilities. They must know who they report to (e.g., incident commander, liaison officer, operations chief, staging area manager) in order to get assignments and to ensure well-coordinated and effective performance.

Treating and transporting patients outside an Incident Management System will create chaos and confusion. Without coordination, some hospitals may become overwhelmed by receiving too many patients, while other trauma centers may have underutilized capabilities.

EMS teams must train to the standards of ICS. Understanding ICS and rehearsing the skills to use it properly will improve the capabilities of every provider. EMS teams will develop skill sets required in a major emergency to better serve their communities, their customers, and their shareholders.

Command School TTX is a leading nationally recognized developer and facilitator of emergency preparedness and response tabletop exercises. The tabletop exercise prepares EMS to respond to critical incidents by providing the basic technical and conceptual skill practice necessary to take control, supervise and manage fast breaking critical incidents.

Command School TTX facilitators are incident- tested, cross-discipline professionals who will help develop the skills that are applicable to most critical incidents.

In any of the all-hazard incidents to which your teams may have to respond, they will have to interact and communicate with other emergency responders and community shareholders. Hands-on response exercising in accordance with the principles of ICS and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) helps achieve a desired incident outcome.

Introduce the unique Command School tabletop exercise facilitation into your annual emergency preparedness calendar. Preparedness learning is enhanced with unique hands-on features. Your team will learn to respond to all-hazards ... before it happens!

THE ICS-DRIVEN TABLETOP EXERCISE EXPERIENCE WILL ENABLE YOUR STAFF TO :