Medical needs documented by emergency medical services (EMS) responders to areas affected by typhoon haiyan in the Philippines: Implications on disaster response policy
Background. Despite existng disaster preparedness policies in the Philippines, there has not been any validated assessment of the quality of disaster medical response, which would require reliable aggregate data on patent diagnoses and management. Objectve. This mixed-methods study documented the diagnoses, triage classifcaton and case management of patents seen by Philippine EMS groups who responded to the Typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines in November and December 2013, as well as difcultes associated in gathering these data, using the Utstein-style Template for Uniform Data Reportng of Acute Medical Response in Disasters as framework. Methods. Three hundred (300) individuals veted by EMS organizatons were invited to answer a survey modeled afer the Utstein-style template, and submit tallies of patents seen. Out of 52 responses received, policy recommendatons were subsequently generated on concerns assessed by the template using the nominal group technique. Results. The submited data yielded a total of 41,202 patents with informaton on age, sex, and diagnosis; 19,193 with triage classifcaton; and 27,523 with informaton on case management. The focus group discussion underlined the absence of a standard communicaton and informaton management system. Partcipants recommended establishing such a system, and highlighted the role of the Department of Health-Health Emergency Management Bureau in coordinatng disaster medical response efforts and informaton management. Conclusion. This study underlines the importance of effectve communicaton, and multsectoral coordinaton, to generate reliable data and thus, facilitate resource allocaton for disaster medical response.
