Difference between disaster and MCI and MVI?

[Jim37F]

I'm trying to find either county or state (Los Angeles County, California) definitions, specifically the difference between an MCI and an MVI and a Disaster. My Google-Fu has been extremely weak and I've been unable to find so much as a mention that there is a difference in the terms. I do vaguely remember reading somewhere that an MCI is up to 10 patients, MVI is 11-100 and anything more is a disaster...but I've got no source for that and a distinct feeling that is wrong, so if someone can point me in the right direction that'd be helpful. Thanks!

 

[Handsome Robb]

Never heard of a MVI.

When we had the air race accident a few years back we had 60+ patients if I remember correctly and we still classified it as an MCI.

For us an MCI is anything with more than 10 patients. We can also call one due to location, excessive number of critical patients or if HAZMAT is involved. There's not any other name we use for a multi-patient incident.

 

[RedAirplane]

San Diego County EMS has a video in which they define an MCI as an emergency where the number and nature of patients exceed or overwhelm the ability of units responding (or something like that).

Let me see if I can find the video. It's actually very informative about MCI in general, albeit with some San Diego lingo...

 

[Ewok Jerky]

I don't know and LA does some wonky things, but I am pretty sure the definition of MCI is purposefully vague to allow declarations to be dynamic. Its not about the hard numbers, its about the resources available.

Lets say you have 9 patients, 4 critical and 3 yellow and 2 green. If you don't declare an MCI and coordinate with receiving facilities, you could end up overwhelming a local hospital with more patients than they can handle.

I have never heard of MVI before, what does that mean? A disaster is not something a responding crew would declare, that on the gov't like the mayor or governor and has to do with regulations/ordinances and funding and crap way above our pay grade.

So I guess the answer to your questions is: I don't know.

 

[RebelAngel]

MCI for us is defined as anything more than our ambulance [crew] can handle.

MVI is not a term I have seen used in our area but the best of my understanding that would be a situation where the numbers of victims necessitates county or state resources.