ABSTRACT

One of the most important occupation field of emergency medicine specialists is disaster medicine. Health services within disaster medicine are quite different from individual health services. Although triage practice is a great problem for hospitals in such kind of incidents; it enables all the medical interventions. In this study, we have aimed to present hospital emergency plan and our triage practice in emergency unit in Van earthquake.

Color coding system was used in triage practice ay Van Region Education and Research Hospital in Van earthquake. All the units, duties of personnel and the places of duty were determined. Emergency unit and recucitation room was marked with red area, intervention tents were marked with yellow area, hospital garden was marked with green area, morgue was marked with black area. There was a trauma team and an emergency medicine spacialist at the entrance of hospital and every corner determined. Patients were evaluated again and again periodically.

One thousand ninety patients registered in three earthquakes in total. There were 68 casualties. Total triage duration was 1350 minutes and average triage duration is 1.23 min.

Every hospital should have their own disaster plan and emergency medicine specialists must be available in the preparation and conduction of disaster plans. Demonstrations should be carried out within disaster plan; demonstrations should be expanded in a way that it would include all the hospitals and other institutions in the city.

Keywords: Earthquake, emergency medicine, disaster plan