Planning for Large Events[1]
Summary
This article addresses planning medical support for mass gatherings such as concerts, sporting events, political conventions and other special events, noting that physicians are increasingly called upon to provide that support. It states that until recently individuals planning such support had little reliable information to help them determine what specific personnel and equipment are necessary to optimally support a mass gathering. The article identifies a National Association of Emergency Medical Services Physicians document, Mass Gathering Medical Care: The Medical Director's Checklist, as the most definitive and up-to-date document available to assist a physician with planning medical care for a mass gathering, and describes it as one of the most important developments in mass gathering medicine. The stated purpose of the article is to highlight and discuss key areas of that document. The abstract reports no study population, design, or quantitative findings.
So what
The practical use of this article is as a pointer: it directs a medical director to the NAEMSP checklist as a planning framework rather than supplying evidence of its own. Anyone citing it should treat it as commentary from 2002 and confirm whether the underlying checklist has since been revised or superseded.
Read the paper
- Publisher (DOI) ↗may be paywalled