By Malaika Fraley
Contra Costa Times
Copyright 2007 Contra Costa Times
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — One hot summer day last year, ambulances were called to the Sleep Train Pavilion after about 150 people fell victim to heat exhaustion.
But the ambulances were turned away at Mount Diablo Medical Center because the facility was overwhelmed by concertgoers who got themselves there first.
At other times, paramedics who needed to bring several patients at once to a hospital had to call for approval before arriving. If the hospital didn’t have the room or staff to accommodate them, the patients were redirected to a facility farther away.
County officials hope both situations won’t happen again, now that Contra Costa has adopted a new countywide emergency plan.
The Emergency Medical Services Multi-Casualty Incident Plan redefines responsibilities and improves communication among first-responders to disasters involving large numbers of victims, county officials said.
It replaces a plan adopted in 1983 in the aftermath of the crash of a Yuba City High School bus. In 1976, a year before Contra Costa gained a fully trained corps of paramedics, 29 people were killed and more than 20 were injured when a bus en route to a choir concert overturned in Martinez.
With no plan in place to care for so many victims, it was an unorganized scene. Children who were still alive were pulled from underneath the dead and rushed to unprepared hospitals.
“It was definitely a wake-up call for Contra Costa County; we needed a plan,” said Jim Maddox, a veteran paramedic with American Medical Response.
The old plan saw revisions throughout the years, but there was no annual review process or regular training. The new plan is simple and clearly defines the role of every firefighter, law enforcement officer, paramedic, hospital, dispatcher and emergency service, officials said. All know their roles and are drilled regularly.
“If you look at the past 30 years, there was probably only three or four times when the plan was even applicable,” said Alan Hartford, Contra Costa Fire District battalion chief and chairman of the task force that created the new plan over a year-and-a-half period. “The whole idea of the new plan was to make it usable for people in the field.”
The new plan will apply to incidents like the deadly pipeline explosion in Walnut Creek in 2004, which involved fewer than 10 victims, but because of the location -- behind Las Lomas High School -- had the potential for more.
“The major change is a broader definition of multicasualty to include much smaller events,” said Art Lathrop, medical services director for Contra Costa Health Services. “The advantage is it gives more opportunities to implement the plan and use it in real-life situations, so when there is a larger event, it’s not foreign to people.”
Many changes to the plan are a direct result of lessons learned from past disasters in the county.
When a water slide collapsed at Concord’s Water World USA in 1997, killing one person and injuring 32, firefighters and paramedics from other counties helped cover routine calls while local emergency personnel traveled between the water park and hospitals.
Under the new plan, locals will field routine calls since they can navigate the region faster . Crews will come from outside the county to transport patients.
In 1985, a twin-engine plane crashed into the Sunvalley mall two days before Christmas, killing the three passengers and injuring 84 shoppers. The first ambulance crew on the scene was overwhelmed by the walking wounded in the parking lot and couldn’t reach the seriously injured inside, Maddox said.
Under the new plan, paramedics will approach the scene from different points and at staggered times.
Under the plan, all hospitals must accept at least six patients, without requiring paramedics to call ahead for approval.