An analysis of medical care at mass gatherings[1]
Summary
Arizona ACEP chapter survey of medical care at 15 facilities hosting public events, plus literature review, undertaken to develop state guidelines for mass-gathering emergency care. Of 490 medical encounters reviewed, 52.2% required care within the paramedic (not basic EMT) scope. Most common presentations: lacerations, sprains, headaches, and syncope. Problems observed: poor documentation and record keeping, prehospital personnel making medical evaluations without transport or medical control, and wide variability of care. Concludes that event organizers bear responsibility for ensuring EMS availability for spectators and participants, and recommends ACEP chapters evaluate mass-gathering care using an objective-oriented guideline approach.
So what
The founding document of organized event medicine in the US: first to survey actual venue care standards, first to state that organizers are responsible for medical provision, and first to call for ACEP-level guidelines — the direct ancestor of the ACEP mass-gathering position papers and of this project's own institutional lineage. Its 52.2% ALS-scope finding remains the classic citation against staffing events with basic first-aiders alone, and every documentation problem it lists (no records, no medical control, variable care) is still the audit checklist for under-resourced events today.
Key findings
- Survey of 15 venues: wide variation in event medical care
- 52.2% of 490 encounters required paramedic-level (ALS) scope
- Commonest presentations: lacerations, sprains, headaches, syncope
- Identified poor documentation, evaluation without transport or medical control
- First formal statement that organizers are responsible for EMS provision; called for ACEP guidelines
Read the paper
- Publisher (DOI) ↗may be paywalled
- PubMed ↗abstract · free