Challenges to effective crisis management: Using information and communication technologies to coordinate emergency medical services and emergency department teams (original) (raw)
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The usefulness of information and communication technologies in crisis response
AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium, 2008
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in coordinating crisis response between pre-hospital services and emergency departments of hospitals. In spite of the advances in these technologies, there remain a variety of challenges to their usage during a crisis. To identify these challenges, we conducted focus group interviews with emergency department (ED) and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. We found that ED and EMS personnel have widely varying perceptions about the usefulness and ease-of-use of information tools and communication tools used in crisis management. We discuss the importance of bringing together communication and information tools into integrated networks of ICTs for effective crisis response. We also highlight design features of ICTs which can support seamless and effective communication and coordination between ED and EMS teams.
Information Technology and Emergency Medical Care during Disasters
Academic Emergency Medicine, 2004
Disaster response to mass-casualty incidents represents one of the greatest challenges to a community's emergency response system. Rescuers, field medical personnel, and regional emergency departments and hospitals must often provide care to large numbers of casualties in a setting of limited resources, inadequate communication, misinformation, damaged infrastructure, and great personal risk. Emergency care providers and incident managers attempt to procure and coordinate resources and personnel, often with inaccurate data regarding the true nature of the incident, needs, and ongoing response. In this chaotic environment, new technologies in communications, the Internet, computer miniaturization, and advanced ''smart devices'' have the potential to vastly improve the emergency medical response to such mass-casualty incident disasters. In particular, next-generation wireless Internet and geopositioning technologies may have the greatest impact on improving communications, information management, and overall disaster response and emergency medical care. These technologies have applications in terms of enhancing mass-casualty field care, provider safety, field incident command, resource management, informatics support, and regional emergency department and hospital care of disaster victims.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Emergency Services
International Journal of E-Politics, 2013
While most would suggest that more effective use of ICT bodes well for emergency services, there are issues associated with the introduction of such use. To explore these issues in Texas, the authors administered a survey of Texas Emergency Services Districts (ESDs). These districts are charged with delivery of emergency and medical services throughout the state and receive modest tax revenue to fund operations. The results show that in Texas ESDs political and organizational factors are important. Budgets are closely related to the political process in the ESDs, so politics plays a central role. Organizational culture and prevailing sentiments in Texas ESDs are generally supportive of ICT adoption and use. While ICT is seen as essential to service delivery, survey results show that problems of interoperability of communication systems is an issue. The most commonly used ICTs include email, GPS, Google Maps, standard web pages, Wi-Fi networks, smart phones, reverse 911, emergency al...
Following an emergency incident, critically injured patients are often treated by multiple healthcare professionals from Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) over a short period of time. The process of transportation from the site of an incident to definitive health care therefore depends on coordination and information-sharing which is reliant on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT is essential to ensure the necessary organizational responses to emergency situations by facilitating information-sharing, sustained coordination and collaboration to protect and save the injured. This literature review provides a broad overview which can facilitate an understanding of the experiences between EMTs in emergencies using ICT by systematically finding, reviewing, assessing and synthesizing current evidence. A systematic search guided by PRISMA was performed using relevant electronic databases and manual searches. Studies were limited to original research and only article...
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2000
The ideas for future technology for Crisis Management are vast, far-fetched and often loaded with unwarranted expectations. For the operators at any Crisis Management control room the information technology is becoming both a burden and a saver. This paper,will discuss,the contradiction,between,current,system-design,for crisis management systems and actual work practice. We suggest, based on empirical studies, that some fundamental aspects of
International Journal of Management Practice, 2008
Based on the trends within the last century of relative increases in global threats in the form of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, health pandemics and chemical and biological threats, it is imperative to test the robustness of current government crisis management capabilities. In conjunction with the growth in asymmetric threats, there has been a digital revolution in technology in relation to disaster response. Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools have key properties that are vital for traditionally 'inflexible' organisations managing modern risks and vulnerabilities. Lessons from past cases of major natural disasters in the UK and Turkey illustrate specific areas where emergency response agencies continuously exhibit weaknesses during response operations. Some of these limitations can be specifically targeted by means of technological solutions, while others need fundamental change to organisational design and policy making.
Mobile Technology as an ICT Solution for Crisis Management: An ABET IS Knowledge
This paper highlights the continued issues of interoperability communication during a multiagency response to a crisis incident as a fundable applied curriculum based case study. With the proliferation of mobile ICT devices such as smart phones, tablets, netbooks and laptops into society and their diffusion into our professional and personal lives, one has to ask why we still use two-way wireless radio developed in the 1890's to communicate during crisis events. Leveraging off-the-shelf mobile ICT, this paper,in support of the current ABET IS curriculum,proposes further developing Internet Protocol systems to replace the current disparate radio based and multilayered proprietary communication systems that currently exist. The ABET IS curricular subjects of usability/technology acceptance, human factors, software/applications, hardware/mobile technology, networks/internet considerations, and security become part of the learning and discussion to contend with real time issues in need of a solution.
Communications in Emergency and Crisis Situations
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014
In emergency and crisis situations (ECS) like earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, it is very important that communication facilities are operative to provide services both to rescue teams and civilians. In ECS it is very common that communication premises are often unable to provide services, either due to physical damages or traffic overload. In such a case there is the need for rapid reestablishment of communication services. In this paper the communication services that can be exploited for ECS mitigation are discussed. The usage scenarios of such services are studied. Following that and looking from a network perspective view an ECS communication network architecture is presented. This architecture aims to provide seamless interoperability of varies communication technologies often present in ECS A primary challenge in responding to Emergency and Crisis Situations (ECS) is communication which plays a crucial role. Emergency response is an open field for new innovative technologies due to the demanding nature of emergency operations. In the case of an ECS telecommunication infrastructure might be inoperative or have poor Quality of Service (QoS) to provide the required services. In ECS, different Emergency Response Authorities (ERA) are involved (civil protection, police, rescuers e.t.c.). This rises a major challenge regarding ECS communication infrastructures, the challenge of interoperability.