Firefighters, police, and paramedics play a critical role in protecting people and property during fires, medical emergencies, terrorist acts, and natural disasters. RAND has examined the risks that emergency responders face—physical injury, traumatic stress, and hazardous exposures—and has offered guidelines to better protect them, beginning with an integrated approach to safety management that includes cooperation among local and state agencies, improved training, and careful planning.
Commentary
Three mass-casualty events occurring in three very different settings show that disaster preparedness should not be limited to large cities or “target” areas in the United States. One trait that is common to all such events is the need for coordinated, responsive trauma care for victims.
Commentary
Boston's health care providers reacted the way they did because they knew what they were supposed to do. Those who did not were smart enough to follow the lead of those who did. That's how a “ritualized” disaster plan works.
Commentary
Although official after-action reports are still being compiled, it looks like Boston's first responders and hospitals delivered under difficult circumstances, writes Arthur Kellermann.
Journal Article
This study combines a text analysis of 70 after action reports (AARs) with a failure mode effects and consequences analysis (FMECA). This approach provides a mechanism to connect the AAR process with efforts to improve emergency response planning.
Report
This report describes a method for modeling an emergency response system; identifying how individual parts of the system might fail; and assessing the likelihood of each failure and the severity of its effects on the overall response effort.
Research Brief
This research highlight summarizes the findings of RAND's initial evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative and the program's impact on communities' readiness to conduct mass dispensing of medications and other medical supplies.
News Release
Non-fatal injuries to police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other public safety workers are common, but little is done to track these incidents in order to improve prevention efforts.
Report
Decisionmakers today largely assess emergency preparedness and homeland security "in the rear view mirror," looking at performance in actual events and responding to perceived failures. While real-world experience is important, better ways to assess preparedness prospectively will lead to better choices as to how and where to strengthen it.
Project
Public safety officers have much higher incidence and cost of injuries that result in disability retirement than other public employees. RAND research helped the Commission on Health and Safety Workers' Compensation and the California legislature in their efforts to provide adequate workers' compensation and disability benefits.
Report
Testimony presented before the House Education and Labor Committee on September 12, 2007.
Commentary
Katrina Proved We Must Do Better Job of Protecting Our Protectors, in the Clarion-Ledger
News Release
The U.S. Army should change the way it plans for domestic emergencies — both natural disasters and terrorist attacks — to better support state and local first responders, according to a RAND Corporation report issued today.
News Release
April 5, 2007 news release: RAND Panel Identifies Key Components of Public Health Emergency Preparedness.
Research Brief
This research brief presents results of a survey of state and local response organizations to learn what they have done to improve their ability to respond to terrorist incidents since 9/11, how they have improved, and what still needs improvement.
Report
Results of a national survey of state and local response organizations' activities following 9/11 to improve preparedness to deal with terrorist incidents and other disasters.
Commentary
Published commentary by RAND staff: Forum: Are We Prepared? Not Quite, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
News Release
April 24, 2006 News Release: RAND Study Proposes Guidelines to Better Protect Emergency Responders at Large Building Collapses
Report
Serves as a technical source for National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) incident commander guidelines for emergency response immediately following large structural collapse events.
Research Brief
A national survey of state and local law enforcement agencies one year after 9/11 shows that agencies have bolstered their preparedness efforts, but substantial variation exists in the approach to preparedness and the preparedness needs of local agen...
Report
Reviews the possible health effects of the substances present following a structural collapse to help develop federal guidelines for personal protective equipment used by emergency responders.
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