Establishing a Critical Incident Medical Response System on a Texas University Campus: Stop the Bleed Campaign

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2019-03-05

Authors

Fogelberg, Katherine
Mott, Jeffrey
Lara, Brandi

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Purpose: The ever increasing incidence of non-accidental mass casualty incidents on educational institutions has commanded the attention of emergency management and medical trainers nationwide. The chaos at these scenes often presents numerous barriers to access for traditional Emergency Medical Services; thus, there is a need for faculty and student bystanders to be trained and properly equipped to effectively provide life sustaining medical care until law enforcement can secure the perimeter. Non medical personnel providing life sustaining medical treatment to the wounded has been a concept used on the modern battlefield for many years. Every Soldier deploying to combat for over a decade receives point of injury medical training and immediate access to life saving equipment. Such medical equipment is carried on their person, stored in nearby vehicles and mounted on the walls of high traffic areas such as dining facilities and gymnasiums. The purpose of this translational research project was to adopt the US military’s Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) guidelines,1,3which are currently considered to be the standard of care for military prehospital medicine, to a state University in Texas by implementing the White House endorsed Stop the Bleed Campaign. Methods: The TCCC guidelines were adopted and successfully used by the US military for use during the Global War on Terrorism. These guidelines were later adapted to civilian law enforcement by the Committee on Tactical Emergency Casualty Care2,4and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians by way of the Prehospital Trauma Life Support manual2. The success of these programs in the civilian community provided a Segway for the Obama administration’s White House endorsement of the Stop the Bleed Campaign. Such an endorsement has created the opportunity for grants providing funds for training and medical equipment to support the campaign. Through a grant provided to the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) by The North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council (NCTTRAC), UNTHSC has been able to purchase and preposition medical supplies throughout the university. Training on the medical equipment was initiated by former military veterans of the UNTHSC faculty and student body. Results: The UNTHSC established a pilot program to train student and campus employees (faculty, staff & law enforcement) in tactical prehospital medical care on the most common preventable causes of death. The program consists of multiple components to include a three tiered medical supply system similar to the successful military model used for over 20 years. These include 1) Tourniquets per police officer and select students (Physician Assistant program), 2) Medical equipment bags for all campus police vehicles, and 3) Twenty Life Station®medical kits prepositioned in high traffic areas of the campus. Training to date has included 60% of the PA student body and 50% of the campus police officers. Conclusion: The principles of medical care in the military tactical care environment are similar to those in the civilian tactical care environment. These military lessons learned on the modern battlefield have met with a welcomed reception in the community nationwide at local, state and federal levels. The White House Stop the Bleed Campaign has been gaining notoriety nationwide. By implementing the program on the University of North Texas Health Science Center, it has paved the way for other Texas campuses to follow the established model.

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