The Quality of Homeland Security and Health Care Systems: The Texas Rangers Initiative
Abstract
Healthcare facilities are an essential component of an emergency response system in case of nuclear, biological or chemical attack, but at the present time, are poorly prepared for an incident. Key elements of the healthcare facility response plan include prompt recognition of the incident, staff and facility protection, patient decontamination and triage, medical therapy, and coordination with external emergency response and public health agencies. Controversial aspects include the optimal choice of personnel protective equipment, establishment of patient decontamination procedures, the role of chemical and biological agent detectors and potential environment packs and water treatment systems. The medical profession must assume a central role in state and national organizations, such as the Texas Rangers Medical Corps. The Texas Rangers Medical Corps represents a possible solution to set security plans, policies and systems in each state or region which can join together to bring each experience to a national coordinated committee.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/jssp.2005.194.196
Copyright: © 2005 Eldo E. Frezza and Maurizio Chiriva-Internati. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Homeland security
- health care,
- weapons of mass destruction
- terrorist attack
- policies