Health care professionals who were involved in six of the largest mass shootings in America came together last fall to discuss their experiences and lessons learned. Their recommended best practices, published in July, address things like optimizing medical records and communication between first responders and hospitals specifically for mass shootings.
Dr. Deborah Kuhls is a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor of surgery who co-authored the study’s findings. She was also one of the trauma surgeons on shift when the calls started coming in on October 1, 2017. Kuhls said it’s important to differentiate between a hospital’s response to a mass casualty disaster and a mass shooting.
“Let’s say if we get an earthquake, we might have other types of injuries that require other types of treatment,” she said. “But in the case of mass shootings, we know that the need for operations and blood is going to be higher.”
Another best practice is for medical systems to host realistic readiness training, where hundreds of patients show up and health care providers exercise who to treat first. Kuhls also gave input on streamlining patient tracking and family reunification, which she said came from first-hand experience almost five years ago.
“Almost every hospital in Southern Nevada received some patients from our shooting,” Kuhls explained. “It was really challenging in our case because it was a concert venue, and we had no idea who they were. We didn’t have a cell phone that we could even look for contacts, so family reunification was really challenging.”
Finally, realizing the emotional toll responding to a mass shooting can have on health caregivers, the cohort also recommends tailored mental health services for responding professionals.