Plane Crash Highlights Hospitalists’ Role in MCIs
Mass casualty incidents (MCIs), such as the landing of a US Airways jetliner in New York City’s frigid Hudson River, showcase the role hospitalists can play in an ED scrambling to handle a triage scenario.
When the Airbus A320 and its 155 passengers crashed Jan. 15, New York and New Jersey hospitals braced for incoming patients. However, reports showed only a few dozen passengers were treated—the most serious for a fractured leg. Still, at Jersey City (N.J.) Medical Center (JCMC), eight victims brought to the ED meant half a dozen patients had to be discharged to make room.
“The hospitalists were involved only on the periphery this time, as we initially needed their approval to move patients out in anticipation of mass casualties,” Douglas Ratner, MD, chairman and program director of JCMC’s Department of Medicine, wrote in an e-mail. “They will be integral in future endeavors like this.”
To that end, some hospitalists used the “Miracle on the Hudson” as a rallying cry for more training.
“How many of us have gone through rigorous teamwork training to learn to better communicate with our ‘cabinmates’ during times of stress? Remarkably few,” Robert Wachter, MD, a hospitalist as well as a professor and associate chairman of the University of California at San Francisco’s department of medicine, wrote on his blog (the-hospitalist.org/blogs). “How often do we need to demonstrate our continued competency in our specialty? For most board-certified physicians, about every 10 years (up from ‘never’ 20 years ago). And how well do we learn from our errors? Well, never mind.”
