Medical treatment facilities decontamination site

If any mustard remains on the skin, thorough decontamination later will prevent the further spreading to other areas. After several hours, spreading will have occurred because oily substances flow on warm skin. Decontamination now, however, will prevent mustard from spreading to personnel who handle the casualty and possible contamination of medical treatment facilities (MTFs). By the time skin lesions develop, most mustard will have been absorbed and fixed to tissue. Unless the site was occluded, the remaining unabsorbed agent will have evaporated. 

A decontamination area must be a part of the early medical care to limit the degree of exposure to the casualty. Emergency medical care will, initially, be provided by nonmedical workers who are responsible for removing the casualties from the site of injury through a personnel decontamination station and to the waiting medical team. Further evacuation may be required for one or more victims, either to the Installation Medical Facility (IMF) or to an off-post medical treatment facility (MTF). Civilian medical facilities may be required to receive the injured personnel, and they also will need their own supplies, equipment, and training appropriate for treating these casualties. 

To address the myriad of issues a chemical attack would present to a community, a response template plan with national applicabihfy, referred to as the Off-Site Triage, Treatment and Transport Center, was formulated. The concept was designed to address the non-critical and non-exposed patients who can be expected to seek medical help. This concept requires the set-up of an ancillary medical fadhty to handle the large number of walking wounded and worried well casualties that are expected from a terrorist attack. The facihty would be a temporary site that supplements existing assets, since many of these centers can be set-up as are deemed necessary. The care envisioned to be provided in such a center includes decontamination, initial entry into the medical care system for patients not processed at the scene, care for non-critical patients, transportation to medical facilities for patients in need, and mental health care. 

Management of Victims at the Scene of the Accident. At facilities with radioactive sources, trained personnel on every shift should normally provide any first aid required. In case of serious injury, medical personnel from suitable off-site medical centers should be available. The purposes of medical response on-site are to treat traumatic injuries, to assess contamination and perform limited decontamination. If anyone receives high doses exceeding threshold for deterministic effects, it is usually recommended that he or she be transported directly to a highly specialized medical hospital for complete medical examination, treatments, and assessment of the dose. 

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