Triage and Air Evacuation Strategy for Mass Casualty Events: A Model Based on Combat Experience

BACKGROUND: Management of combat casualties should optimize outcomes by appropriate patient triage, prehospital care, and rapid transport to the most capable medical facility, while avoiding overwhelming individual facilities. METHODS: Planning the medical support for the campaign was done by the medical department of the IDF Southern command in cohort with the medical department of the Homefront command. Data collection and analysis were done by the Trauma Branch of the Medical corp. RESULTS: 339 soldiers were injured, among them were 10 fatalities. Five hospitals received casualties, although the 2 regional hospitals received 84% of the primary evacuation load. The majority of urgently injured soldiers (90%) were evacuated by air, as opposed to 59% of non-urgently injured soldiers. CONCLUSIONS: In a cross border setting, airlifting the urgent casualties to farther away level I trauma centers provides appropriate care for them, while not crossing the "surge capacity" line for the near-by medical centers.