Emergency response of medical force during the international exercise of the rescue services of Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden – Barents Rescue-2017

Abstract

Relevance. The probability of emergency situations in the Barents region determines the need of improvement of forces and means of rendering first and emergency medical care to victims. In September 2017 the large-scale international exercise of rescue services of Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland under the code name “Barents-Rescue 2017” was carried out in the Republic of Karelia. The exercise worked oved rendering first-aid and emergency medical care to victims of emergency situations.Intention. To summarize experience in preparation, rendering and result assessment of first-aid and emergency medical care to victims of emergency situations in the framework of the international exercises.Methods. Medical document analysis (hospital records, medical triage records, expert assessment records), statistical analysis of groups using Student’s t-test. The exercise involved 76 victims with injuries of various severity levels, among them 30 were of minor severity, 19 were of medium severity and 27 were of heavy severity. They received first-aid and emergency medical care by 42 rescuers and 67 health workers (doctors, paramedics, nurses) of rescue services of Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Results assessment was made on the basis of the developed hospital records, medical triage records and expert assessment records and also statistical analysis methods.Result and their analysis. The average expert assessment of a first-aid rendered by rescuers was sufficiently high and was equal to 4.6 ± 0.1 on a 5-score rating system, where 5 points means providing full assistance in accordance with the established standards of its provision. A qualitative medical triage was provided competently, the ordering of evacuation was right, life-threatening damages and injuries were properly defined. At the stage of medical evacuation all the victims were provided with full assistance, there were no divergence of diagnoses, some differences from final diagnose were permissible at the stage of medical evacuation and had no effect on victim’s condition. In addition, a part of the victims in the hospital had medical cards, where was information about the diagnoses and the measures taken. These medical documents were also analyzed in terms of the timeliness and quality of the provision of specialized medical care to injured people in the hospital.Conclusion. The results of expert assessment during the international exercise of rescue services of Barents Rescue 2017 showed that the quality of first-aid, medical triage and emergency medical care during the evacuation and also in the hospital is high enough, but there were some remarks too. Suggestions and comments were addressed to the Exercise organizing committee to improve the engagement during first-aid and medical care to victim of the emergency and they were included in the final report on the exercise.