Systemic Approach to Analyze Emergency Medical Services Preparedness in Traffic Mass Incident Causality

Mass casualty incidents (MCI) caused by transportation systems significantly disturb the healthcare systems. Emergency medical services (EMS) play a vital role in diminishing the adverse impact caused by such events. Despite the fact that tremendous improvements in the emergency preparedness area, significant gaps exist in tackling and optimizing EMS in mass causality incidents caused by traffic. This paper aims to propose a systematic approach to analyze emergency medical services preparedness in traffic MCIs. The proposed methodology approach starts by identifying key gaps in the literature to overcome them and identify potential factors associated with medical emergency services in traffic MCI scenarios. Furthermore, quantitative data collection through surveys will be conducted to provide a more profound understanding of the current challenges that exist in the scope of this work. Pareto chart and root cause analysis will be implemented after the data collection phase. Once these are done, bow-tie analyses will be conducted to identify key weaknesses, evaluate the current measures, and propose enhanced practices. The collected data will then be utilized to develop a systematic framework for enhancing emergency preparedness in MCIs related to transportation, which will then be validated using a case study from the UAE.