Introduction

Overview

An Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system is designed to provide pre-hospital emergency medical care in a community. This common definition can be broadened to include the practice of emergency medicine outside a hospital as well as in a health care facility.

In the United States, there are two distinguishable EMS systems, civilian and military, which usually operate independent of each other. However, during disasters, both systems work together to provide the necessary emergency medical care to the affected community.

This lesson covers critical incident management, triage, communication and equipment standards, and education and training issues related to EMS in the United States.

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Define an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system
• Diagram the structure of the Incident Command System (ICS)
• Explain the roles of each of the five functions of the ICS
• Define disaster triage and explain two unique challenges it presents
• Recall six different types of wireless communications systems and their
  applications for disaster preparedness and response